LONDON, 29 NOV — A hat-trick from Georgia Stanway highlights a sold-out night at Wembley Stadium as England Women’s smash China 8-0 in their homecoming tour.
Stanway is now the third woman and the only female midfielder to score a hat-trick at Wembley alongside Beth Mead and Aggie Beever-Jones. She found the back of the net in the 23rd minute, then again in the 38th minute from a penalty kick after a China handball VAR decision, and finally in the 52nd minute after a textbook sequence from the relentless Lionesses.
“We are very happy, and I think the most important thing was starting fast today,” said Stanway to ITV. “I’m not known for scoring goals at the moment so I will take that. I’m happy with that and I am happy my family is here.”
England scored four goals in the first half, thrashing China’s crumbling defence every chance they got.
Mead kick-started the goal frenzy in the 12th minute with an assist from Lucy Bronze and then scored again two minutes later, assisted by Ella Toone, both into the far post. Head coach Sarina Wiegman subbed the Arsenal favourite and 2022 Euro’s Golden Boot winner off the field at halftime before the fans could see a hat-trick.
“Nice to see lots of different goalscorers and different people getting minutes,” said Mead speaking to ITV. “I like being in front of goal and getting goals, but we put together a lot of good goals tonight.”
In a span of 3 minutes and 53 seconds, the Lionesses made it 3-0 after a Stanway assist to Lauren Hemp in the 16th minute, a return from injury to remember for the Manchester City forward.
After two assists to Mead and Stanway, Toone added a goal to the tally in the 71st minute with a tap-in after China’s goalkeeper Pan Hongyan rolled the ball straight to her in an attempt to escape Alessia Russo.
But Russo came back for more in the 78th minute, writing her name on the score sheet with Toone’s third assist of the night.
Anna Moorhouse finished the night with a clean sheet in her England debut as the Orlando Pride goalkeeper took the currently-injured Hannah Hampton’s place.
“Really nice,” said Wiegman to ITV. “We want to be more ruthless in the final third and I think we did today. I think we started well and they played in a different shape that they didn’t before, so we had to adapt to that which was really good.”
A shocking end for the 19th FIFA ranked China, as the World Cup 2027 hopefuls fall hard against the back-to-back European Champions. The final score marks Wiegman’s 50th win as England manager.
The Lionesses return for another performance at home to complete their 2025 tour this Tuesday at St. Mary’s Stadium against Ghana.
