Late Sweden strike denies Women's U23s victory

Saturday 01 Mar 2014
Nikita Parris celebrates her goal against Sweden

An added-time goal denied England victory over Sweden in their opening match of the La Manga Tournament.

Mo Marley has taken an 18-strong squad to southern Spain for this annual round-robin competition.

Everton youngster Nikita Parris, who helped the U19s win a silver medal at last year’s European Championship finals, gave England the lead on 75 minutes.

And that looked to be enough to hand the Lionesses an opening day win but a late equaliser prevented them from collecting all three points.

Their second game is against Germany on Monday, followed by Japan on Wednesday.

England
1 Mary Earps, 2 Martha Harris, 3 Rachel Daly, 4 Sherry McCue (14 Drew Spence, 80), 5 Jemma Rose, 6 Jasmine Matthews, 7 Nikita Parris (18 Freda Aiysi, 80), 8 Laura Coombs, 9 Dan Carter, 10 Isobel Christiansen (C) (12 Melissa Lawley, 62), 11 Francesca Kirby
Substitutes not used: 13 Megan Walsh, 15 Amy Turner, 16 Bianca Bragg, 17 Kirsty Linnett.

By Glenn Lavery