Four Gunners featured for England under-20s in the February/March international break as the young Lionesses lost to Spain before beating the Netherlands and Mexico in Alicante.
Laila Harbert, Cecily Wellesley-Smith and Vivienne Lia all started for John Salomon’s side in their opening game of a triple header in Alicante against hosts Spain, while Niamh Peacock was an unused substitute in the 3-1 defeat.
After Spain raced into a 3-0 lead, Chelsea loanee Vera Jones finished off a move started by Wellesley-Smith to get England on the scoresheet, and was unlucky not to win a late penalty after being brought to ground in the penalty area.
The young Lionesses responded to their opening defeat with a hard-fought 1-0 win over the Netherlands, with Carolina Ascent midfielder Chloe Hylton netting the winner. Wellesley-Smith and Lia kept their places in the starting XI, while Peacock and Harbert featured from the bench.
In the third and final game of the camp, Laila Harbert scored twice in a 4-1 England win over Mexico. Harbert netted her first of the afternoon just before half-time, finishing off an impressive team move.
Lois Shooter made it two shortly after the break before Harbert made it three on the hour mark. Mexico pulled a goal back towards the end of the game, but the young Lionesses had the last laugh when Princess Ademiluyi struck in the 90th minute.
With the international break coming to an end this weekend, our Gunners will head back out to their loan clubs. Wellesley-Smith and Lia will head back to Sweden with Rosengard and Hammarby respectively.
Fresh from her brace against Mexico, Harbert will return to Merseyside with Everton, while Peacock will return to Portsmouth, where our defender is on an academy development registration.
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