City trio feature as England draw with USA

Three City players were in action for England as the Lionesses drew 0-0 with the United States in front of a record crowd for a women’s international friendly.

Alex Greenwood and Jess Park both started for Sarina Wiegman’s side in front of 78,346 at Wembley Stadium, with Chloe Kelly introduced from the bench late on.

Despite chances at both ends, neither side were able to find the net in an exciting contest which belied the lack of goals.

It was the visitors who started the brighter of the two with Mary Earps tipping a dangerous Alyssa Thompson effort around the post after five minutes.

Earps was called into action again around the half hour mark, pushing out Casey Krueger’s effort with Greenwood recovering in time to scramble the loose ball away from Lynn Williams.

And the US had the ball in the net soon after the restart through Lindsey Horan, only for the offside flag to keep things at 0-0.

The visitors continued to pile on the pressure when Yazmeen Ryan broke through on the right, but she opted to square the ball to Horan rather than pull the trigger, allowing Leah Williamson to clear.

But that latest scare brought England to life, with Park particularly lively heading towards the hour mark.

Alessia Russo went closest, seeing a stinging effort on the turn blocked by a US leg, before a VAR decision correctly overturned a US penalty at the other end after Alex Greenwood had initially been judged to have handled the ball.

Chloe Kelly was introduced with 15 to play at Wembley, with Park also replaced by Fran Kirby as England searched for the winner, but it ultimately proved elusive.

Elsewhere, Lily Murphy featured for England’s Under-19s in a 1-0 Euros qualifier win over Italy.

The City forward started for the Young Lionesses in Poland before being replaced in the 57th minute by Arsenal’s Vivienne Lia.

Lily Dent’s strike after 15 minutes was enough to maintain England’s 100% record in qualifying, with the result following a 2-1 win over Turkey on Wednesday.

They face Poland in their final Group 4 fixture on Tuesday 3 December.