THE final Lionesses camp of this calendar year has rolled around where they will face Netherlands at home and Scotland away.
The squad will take on the Netherlands on Friday night under the Wembley arch and travel to Scotland next Tuesday to face off against their opposition at Hampden Park.
There are, as usual, many familiar faces to the squad to end 2023 but there are some faces for the first time in a while but also those who are only on their first couple camps with the team.
Number one, Mary Earps (Manchester United), who has just been voted BBC’s Women’s Footballer of the year, remains in the squad and is expected to stand in between the posts for both games for England.
Lionesses regulars, Lucy Bronze (Barcelona), Georgia Stanway (Bayern Munich) and Alessia Russo (Arsenal) plus a few others have also been called back up to represent their country.
England youngsters, Grace Clinton (Tottenham Hotspur, loan from Manchester United) and Khiara Keating (Manchester City) have earned their second call up to the squad but are still waiting on that debut.
A few players have been dropped from the last Lionesses fixtures against Scotland and Belgium, these are – Lucy Parker (Aston Villa), Ellie Roebuck (Manchester City) and Jess Park (Manchester City).
Vice Captain Millie Bright (Chelsea) withdrew from the squad over the weekend with Manchester United’s Millie Turner replacing her.
One of the biggest questions is who will captain the side for these two fixtures with Captain Leah Williamson (Arsenal) still out with an ACL injury and Bright stepping down for the call up, could it be Earps or Bronze?
The player who has the biggest media coverage of their call up is forward, is Arsenal’s Beth Mead.
Mead suffered an ACL injury last November and hasn’t played for her country since then but instead watching from the sidelines.
Everything is on the line with these two fixtures as Great Britain’s women’s football qualification relies on England topping their group as they are the qualifying nation.
The Lionesses previously beat Scotland 2-1 back in September with Bronze and Lauren Hemp on the scoresheet.
However, when up against the Netherlands in September, the team lost due to a 90th minute goal with Russo being England’s only goalscorer of the night.
England currently sit 3rd in their Women’s Nation League group but only three points separate them from Netherlands sit in first.
Could Mead be what it takes to get Great Britain to the Olympics considering she was an integral part of their Euros success? Only the game at Wembley will give us the answer.
