What better way to celebrate International Women's Day than to shine a light on three different England teams who will be performing at the elite end of the game over the next few weeks?
With the FIFA Women's World Cup less than three months away, Phil Neville's senior squad laid down a marker by winning the prestigious SheBelieves Cup in the United States.
A resilient comeback win over Brazil, courtesy of goals from Ellen White and Beth Mead, was followed by a credible 2-2 draw with world champions USA – Steph Houghton and Nikita Parris with the goals for the Lionesses.
And we were treated to a fantastic finale on Wednesday night as England stunned Japan, the 2015 World Cup runners-up.
First-half goals by Lucy Staniforth, Karen Carney and Mead did the damage, allowing Houghton to lift the SheBelieves Cup for the first time.
The Lionesses will now be hoping to take this momentum into the World Cup which begins in June.
England, who haven’t lost a World Cup qualifier since 2002, have been drawn alongside Scotland, Argentina and Japan.
And Neville has lined up four tricky warm-up matches at home to best prepare his charges for France 2019.
First up is Canada at the Academy Stadium in Manchester on Friday 5 April. Then it’s Spain in Swindon four days later.
Denmark, the Euro 2017 runners-up, will visit Banks’s Stadium in Walsall on Saturday 25 May while New Zealand will play their part in England’s World Cup send-off in Brighton on Saturday 1 June.
Tickets for all four matches are on sale now with children able to attend for just £1.
Meanwhile, England’s U17s and U19s have reached the final stage of Euro qualifying after both age groups sauntered through their respective first qualifying rounds late last year.
Gemma Grainger’s U17s eased past Azerbaijan (7-0) and Moldova (6-0) before topping the group by beating Iceland 2-0.
They will now meet Georgia (on Thursday 21 March), Hungary (Sunday 24 March) and Greece (Wednesday 27 March), with the top-placed nation in the round-robin group making it through to the finals, which are being staged in Bulgaria in May.
The U19s are next up when they host their elite qualifying round group matches at St. George’s Park.
Rehanne Skinner’s side, who warmed up by competing in the La Manga Tournament earlier this month, face Turkey (on Wednesday 3 April), Sweden (Saturday 6 April) and Italy (Tuesday 9 April), again with the group-toppers progressing to the finals, in Scotland in July.
“The future for English women's football is absolutely amazing,” said Neville.
“We've got a set of Under-20 players that in 2021 or around then will be the best team in the world.
“Those players in another 12 months’ time will get an opportunity to hopefully go to an Olympics or the Euros.
“As an England senior women's team, we've got an unbelievable next three or four years with this generation coming through.”
