England 1 Canada 1: Lionesses held in Riverside stalemate

The Manchester City striker cancelled out Millie Bright’s equally-impressive first-half volley 10 minutes after the break to ensure the game finished 1-1 at the Riverside Stadium, just as Germany’s earlier clash with Spain had done. In the process, she ended Sarina Wiegman’s six-game winning start to her reign as Lionesses bosses, although the Canadians represented a significant step up in class from their World Cup qualifying opponents with England having put 20 past Latvia without reply in their most recent fixture.

The draw on Teesside, coupled with equally-tough games against the Spaniards on Sunday and the Germans next Wednesday, are just the kind of tests they need ahead of the Euro 2022 finals this summer

England took the lead on 22 minutes. Fran Kirby pulled a corner short to the left foot of Alex Greenwood and, although Sheridan punched her cross away from the immediate danger zone, Bright returned it with interest courtesy of a sweet volley to open the scoring.

The visitors adopted a much higher press in the second half in an attempt to deny the hosts time and space, and the ploy paid dividends when Beckie cut inside on to her left foot and thumped an unstoppable shot across Mary Earps and into the top corner.