England vs South Africa LIVE: Team news and line-ups as Lionesses’ captain Leah Williamson wins 50th cap

Friday’s friendly, played in front of a 47,967 crowd at Wembley, was the first time the sides had squared off since England’s comeback to win the the Euro 2022 final at the same venue.

The Lionesses conceded three before the half-hour of a five-goal first half that saw Georgia Stanway claw back two before the break including a penalty.

England are winless in their last two games in all competitions (D1 L1), only once under Sarina Wiegman have they failed to win three successive games under, doing so in July 2023.

England have won 19 of their last 21 games when hosting an opponent for the very first time (D1 L1), scoring 96 goals and conceding just four times across those matches – the only loss in that period came against New Zealand in June 2019 (0-1).

England are unbeaten in their last four games against African opposition in all competitions (W3 D1), most recently drawing 0-0 with Nigeria at the 2023 World Cup before winning 4-2 on penalties.

Wiegman’s side were 3-0 down inside half an hour against their Euro 2022 final opponents at Wembley on Friday but rallied before eventually losing 4-3.

Preparations are underway for South Africa’s visit to the Coventry Building Society Arena as Wiegman is given another chance to experiment.

South Africa have won just one of their last 16 games against European opposition in all competitions (D3 L12), a 3-2 win over Italy in August 2023.

Will that change against the Lionesses?

This will be England’s third ever meeting with South Africa after 6-0 and 1-0 wins under Hope Powell in the 2009 and 2010 Cyprus Cup respectively.

Can they make it three from three in Coventry?

Sarina Wiegman says the expectations on England are ‘really high’ and that to meet them her team needs to constantly improve.

She said: “We are so visible and expectations are really high. We have to deal with that and we are in in our environment every day, we know what we want to do and how we want to do it.

“We need to analyse what went well, what we need to improve, and that’s what we do every day. There might be criticism from the outside, and that’s alright, but I think sometimes the criticism is too much on the result.

“We need the bigger picture. We work out where we are at overall.”

Georgia Stanway did the pre-match media duties alongside her coach yesterday and also addressed the result against Germany last Friday.

She said: “Germany are a top side. They were difficult to prepare for because they could throw anything at us. We didn’t know their shape or formation because they have a new coach and after 30 minutes we found our feet.

“On the whole it’s a massive learning opportunity and I feel like we helped them by giving the ball away. That affects our defensive shape so we can’t start the game by taking too many risks.”

Sarina Wiegman promised changes and she has made eight of them from the team that line-up against Germany. Only Leah Williamson, Georgia Stanway and Beth Mead keep their places from that match.

In comes Mary Earps replacing Hannah Hampton in goal.

Maya Le Tissier, Alex Greenwood and Esme Morgan join the back line ahead of Lucy Bronze, Millie Bright and Jess Carter while in midfield Jess Park and Grace Clinton take the places of Keira Walsh and Ella Toone.

In the forward line, Alessia Russo and Lauren Hemp drop out with Jessica Naz and Chloe Kelly starting.