Norfolk welcomed the Lionesses to Carrow Road
Norfolk welcomed more than 14,000 fans to watch Lionesses
Norwich City’s Carrow Road held a brilliant day of high quality international women’s football.
England faced Spain and Canada played Germany in the second round of fixtures in the Arnold Clark Cup. A tournament, which acts as a warmup ahead of the European Championships which will be held this country in the summer. To purchase tickets for the Women’s European Championships please click here.
England, backed by a crowd of more than 14,000 played out a 0-0 draw with ninth world-ranked side Spain. A highlight of the game for the local supporters was when Lauren Hemp was subbed on at the start of the second half. Lauren started her footballing journey off with North Walsham Town and Norwich City before moving on to play for Bristol City and now Manchester City in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League.
It was very almost the perfect start for the locally-born striker as she picked up the ball in the Spain half and drove towards goal, only for her shot to strike the inside of the post and away from danger.
Both sides continued to search for the opening goal until the final whistle, but despite chances being created, a combination of great defending and goalkeeping kept the game goalless.
That meant going into the second game Canada or Germany could take pole position in the inaugural Arnold Clark Cup on matchday two with a victory. Canada did just this by scoring the only goal of the game thanks to a powerful header from Vanessa Gilles in the seventh minute.
England now have to beat Germany at Molineux on Wednesday and hope that result of the other game goes their way to pick up the trophy.