England Lionesses manager Sarina Wiegman has expressed concern over forward Michel Agyeman’s possible serious knee injury during England’s 3-0 win over Australia. Her screams as she left the pitch 13 minutes after coming on as a substitute could be heard by those watching on television.
Young starlet Agyemang, who played a key role in the Lionesses’ successful defense of the European Championship this summer, was stretchered off the pitch as goals from Aggie Beaver-Jones, Lucy Bronze and a second-half penalty from Georgia Stanway overshadowed a comfortable victory at Pride Park.
Australia were reduced to 10 men from the start of the match, and Alana Kennedy was shown a red card in the 19th minute for knocking down Alessia Russo as she ran towards goal.
Agyemang came on in the 62nd minute but immediately fell to the ground clutching her knees as she walked away from the ball, with coach Wiegmann saying: “It was a terrible moment. She’s not in good shape. Until she’s evaluated, we don’t know yet, but I’m not very positive about what I saw.”
She added to ITV: “Of course it looked terrible. When you’re being carried away on a stretcher, it just doesn’t feel good. It doesn’t look good. Of course, it hasn’t been confirmed, but it looks bad.”
The Bronze added a second goal on their 34th birthday when Beaver Jones put them ahead with a powerful strike after Kennedy conceded a free kick.
Due to Stanway’s late penalty, the final scoreline more accurately reflected the match, with Coach Wiegmann saying: “I’m happy with the result, 3-0 is a good score.”
“We started very well, dominated the game and put pressure on our opponents both on and off the ball.
“They were down to 10 men and changed some things. We wanted to maintain the pace, we wanted to have a lot of good moments and there were some things we needed to do to improve our execution.
“It was disappointing (the red card) and that’s the rules. I don’t mind if it’s a qualifier, but in a friendly we want to play 11-on-11. That’s where we benefit the most. We tried to adapt to that quickly.”
The result marked a welcome bounce back from England’s 2-1 loss to Brazil on Saturday, which also saw a player sent off.
Wiegman continued, “This camp was really fun. The team was in a good place and everyone was excited to be back for the homecoming tour.”
“It was great to see these celebrations, but at the same time we were preparing for World Cup qualifiers and wanted to make the best use of these matches.”
Australia coach Joe Montemurro said, “We didn’t get off to a good start.England were more aggressive, so we couldn’t get into a rhythm, and the game changed with 10 men.”
“There are opportunities to implement other ideas, we made some adjustments in the second half but England had limited chances in the box.
“They started well before the send-off party, and we see this as a learning curve for us.”
