England 7 Austria 2: Grace Clinton nets during dream debut as Lionesses crush European rivals
GRACE CLINTON showed amazing grace in England’s attack with a dream debut finish in the Lionesses’ humbling of Austria on Friday.
Sarina Wiegman’s faith in the Tottenham’s starlet was rewarded during the 7-2 thumping that included Beth Mead netting a brace.
The performance saw last summer’s World Cup finalists get their Euros qualifiers preparations off to a flier.
The team are to begin their battle for a place in next summer’s contest in April.
And the result of the friendly played in southern Spain, means England are yet to be beaten by their rivals who fell to a tenth loss to the Lionesses.
Although Austria got on the scoresheet twice at the at the Estadio Nuevo Mirador, the team struggled against their opponents’ press.
Before the game Wiegman spoke of experimenting and her players being over the heartbreak of missing out on play-offs for a Paris Olympics football spot for Team GB.
It took her new look side, with Clinton making her first appearance, just three minutes to get off the mark.
It was a opening goal out of Arsenal’s playbook with Gunners aces Alessia Russo and Mead combining and Russo pouncing on rebound of Mead shot’s for a tap-in.
Austria’s nightmare start showed no signs of easing as England punished erroneous passes out from the back.
A swift counter saw them double their lead with Clinton heading home in the 19th minute just moments after striking the post.
Against the run of play Austria pulled a goal back with England caught cold from a corner kick.
That moment saw an unmarked Virginia Kirchberger head beyond an outstretched Hannah Hampton to make it 2-1 with half an hour gone.
But any hopes of a miraculous fight back were thwarted with Mead’s stunning curled shot flying past her Gunners goalkeeper team-mate Manuela Zinsberger.
The second half saw Wiegman shuffle her deck with Jess Carter and Jess Park among the players entering the fray.
And Russo bagged her second after Sarah Zadrazil was caught in possession in the 61sth minute before making way for Rachel Daly.
Carter added to the drubbing with a flicked finish past Zinsberger late on.
But Kirchberger caught England cold again from a set-piece with the defender out leaping Esme Morgan before Mead fired in England’s sixth goal with a minute of normal time left.
And Daly’s rifled in the team’s seventh after beating Zinsberger one-on-one in injury time.
A friendly duel with Italy is up next for the Lionesses on Tuesday.