England vs Ghana live: Russo converts penalty in stoppage time as Lionesses earn victory
England 2-0 Ghana: Sarina Wiegman’s side have ended the year with back-to-back victories on home soil after Saturday’s 8-0 romping of China
England have ended the year on a high after overcoming Ghana in their final friendly of 2025.
Sarina Wiegman made seven changes from the side that romped to an 8-0 victory over China at Wembley and quickly saw one of those switches pay off as Lucia Kendall fired home inside five minutes to break the deadlock.
The Lionesses were then frustrated by their visitors in the search for a second goal, with the first-half injury to Chloe Kelly not helping their cause.
But just as the game was approaching its climax, a handball on the line from a Ghana defender gave England the perfect opportunity to put the contest to bed in stoppage time - a chance gobbled up by Alessia Russo who converted from the spot.
Off the pitch, ITV presenter Laura Woods collapsed live on air after being ‘taken ill’ with Katie Shanahan replacing her alongside pundits Ian Wright and Anita Asante for the game, though her fiance Adam Collard has since confirmed that she is “ok and with the right people”.
Follow all the action live from St Mary’s here:
Wiegman on starting Wubben-Moy
Sarina Wiegman explained a few of her changes for tonight’s match including why she decided to start Lotte Wubben-Moy in defence.
"We were planning on starting her anyway and unfortunately Esme (Morgan)is ill too.
“Good for Lotte. She has done well and nice opportunity for her."
Laura Woods ‘taken ill’ after appearing to collapse while presenting ahead of Lionesses clash
Laura Woods appeared to collapse while presenting ITV’s pre-match coverage of England’s clash with Ghana on Tuesday night.
The 38-year-old was caught by pundits Ian Wright and Anita Asante before ITV cut straight to commercials.
Laura Woods appears to collapse while presenting ahead of Lionesses clash
A long wait for a debut
Last time out 30-year-old Anna Moorhouse became the oldest player to make their England debut on record.
She was also the first goalkeeper to debut for the Lionesses while playing their club football outside of England (Orlando Pride) since Lizzie Durack in March 2014 (Harvard University).
Christmas tidings
England are unbeaten in their final home game in each of the last four calendar years, since they lost 2-1 to Germany in 2019 (no home game in 2020); the Lionesses beat Latvia 20-0 in November 2021, drew 0-0 with Czechia in October 2022, beat the Netherlands 3-2 in December 2023 and in December last year won 1-0 against Switzerland.
Ghana's unbeaten run
Ghana are unbeaten in their last seven matches in all competitions (three wins, four draws), since losing their first match of the Women's Africa Cup of Nations this summer to South Africa.
Pre-match thoughts from Sarina Wiegman
England manager Sarina Wiegman told BBC Radio 5 Live: "We have never played Ghana. We talk a lot about when we play the African countries and of course they have their different styles of play, and different tweaks in how they want to play, but you often see a lot of speed and physicality.
"Ghana also have a clear structure of how they want to play. In moments they want to play a possession game but they also want to be direct. That is what we want to force them to do – not to give them time to play.
"They also have some rotations if they have opportunities so let’s see how that goes. It’s good to have that challenge because we want that going into the next stage.”
Fortress St. Mary's
England have never conceded in four previous games at St Mary’s Stadium.
That is the joint-most times they have played at a venue without doing so (also Keepmoat, New Meadow and Bramall Lane).
Itt includes Sarina Wiegman’s first game in charge of the Lionesses in September 2021, beating North Macedonia 8-0 in a World Cup qualifier, and most recently a 5-0 victory vs Northern Ireland at Euro 2022.
England v Ghana
England are unbeaten in each of their last five matches against African opposition (four wins, one draw), since a 3-0 home loss to Nigeria in April 2004.
Beever-Jones starts tonight
Aggie Beever-Jones starts as the main forward this evening and is looking forward to impressing.
“Playing for England is one of the greatest honours,” she said ahead of the match.
“Every time I get the opportunity, I want to show people what I can do and give Sarina the right kind of headaches.
“Every single player wants to play for England and whenever we get the opportunity, it’s about taking it.
“I think it just shows the calibre of players that we have that every single player is a world-class player and ready to perform whenever they put an England shirt on.”
Beever-Jones on China win
The victory over China was a massive confidence boost for England.
Forward Aggie Beever-Jones said: “Coming away from the game, it was a great performance – 8-0 at Wembley.
“Georgia [Stanway] got a hat-trick and I think it was a great team performance and we were able to show some really good quality. I think we had eight or nine clear chances and we got eight goals.
“I think it’s a really exciting time to play a non-European team and a team that England has never played before.
“For me personally, being at Southampton is quite nice. My family are near from the Isle of Wight and they’ll be coming over.
“It’s nice to get a different calibre of people, fans and like Sarina said, to have 24,000 fans and hopefully a few more tickets sold, it’ll be a really, really good game.”
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