England Women 5-0 Belgium Women
Belgium Women 3-2 England Women
When a 5-0 Lionesses win includes four goals made in Chelsea, it's a special day indeed.
Unfortunately, England Women's convincing victory on home soil against Belgium was followed up by a rare defeat, undoing all the good work.
Still, let's cling to positives. At Bristol's Ashton Gate stadium – packed and boisterous – Lucy Bronze, Millie Bright, Aggie Beever-Jones and Kiera Walsh were all on target, with City's Jess Park completing the scoring.
The worry? Lauren James picked up a hamstring tweak and is having rehab care at the Cobham training ground. Her participation in the next few games is in doubt.
However, Bronze was a tireless presence in the Lionesses' first match of the international break, and is raring to go again.
Hannah Hampton did well in goal in both games, while Niamh Charles started in the defeat in the Den Dreef stadium, in front of a disappointingly meagre 6,000 crowd.
Sarina Wiegman put a brave face on it, but there was no disguising the Belgians' glee at the end, and the glum faces among the England players.
Fran Kirby and Jess Carter made subs' appearances in the away match.
Tough tests ahead
Now it's back to cup action for Chelsea, with a home tie against Liverpool – on a run of good form – on Saturday (12 April) at Kingsmeadow at 12.15pm (it's also live on BBC One) for a place in the Women's FA Cup final at Wembley as the Blues build up to the away match in Barcelona on 20 April – the first part of a mouth-watering European double-header.
At Stamford Bridge they're counting the days to the Champions League semi-final second leg on 27 April, with another 20% discount on offer to Hammersmith & Fulham residents. It's a rematch of last year's semi-final, which pulled in a sellout crowd.
Local residents can get their discounted tickets by booking here.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and unless specifically stated are not necessarily those of Hammersmith & Fulham Council.
