Jordan Nobbs says England are ready for USA test

Mark Sampson’s side were blown away by Germany in November at Wembley in what was supposed to be a new dawn for the sport – but ended up being a washout.

Not only did 10,000 supporters who had bought tickets not turn up – which still culminated in a record 45,619 crowd – but they were beaten 3-0 on a miserable Sunday afternoon on a pitch that had been trampled on by NFL players.

The Lionesses, however, have reflected on the defeat and are ready to go again against the Americans, who have just been leapfrogged by Germany as the best-ranked team in the world.

The two-time World Cup winners and four-time Olympic champions, however don’t get the privilege of a trip to the national football stadium – where they picked up gold in 2012 – but to StadiumMK on a Friday 13 evening, with FIFA windows and FA Cup complications blamed for the scheduling.

But Arsenal midfielder Nobbs welcomes the challenge, insisting for England to improve and fight for honours in the game, these types of match-ups are crucial – particularly with the summer’s women’s World Cup in Canada edging closer.

“America will offer a similar test to Germany,” she said. “And we haven’t played many games so that could work against us, but at the same time we need to be playing these kind of fixtures – against the Germanys and the Americas – to get us ready for the summer.

“By playing the big teams now, there are fewer surprises and after the experience against Germany this gives us another style of football to test ourselves against.

“They’ve got a lot of different strengths to Germany. They’re both naturally fit and strong but where Germany are all about a structured base, America have more individual players who can hurt you.

“It will be a new task and more experience but we’re definitely ready to compete against them.”