Georgia Stanway scored a hat-trick as a rampant England thumped China 8-0 in an international friendly at Wembley Stadium on Saturday.
The Lionesses produced a five-star showing in the first half with Lauren Hemp’s 16th-minute strike sandwiched between braces from Stanway and Beth Mead.
Bayern Munich midfielder Stanway completed her treble seven minutes after the restart before Ella Toone and Alessia Russo got in on the act to conclude the stunning rout.
Sarina Wiegman’s side were in cruise control with just 14 minutes on the clock, with two quickfire finishes from Mead handing England a dream start in the capital.
Hemp then tucked home Stanway’s cross into the box in the 16th minute before the latter sent a first-time strike into the bottom-left corner soon as China goalkeeper Pan Hongyan failed to deal with a ball into the box.
China’s misery was compounded when Stanway coolly dispatched a 38th-minute penalty into the net, with the spot-kick given after Li Mengwen handled the ball inside the area.
Stanway completed her treble as she collected Toone’s incisive pass into the area before steadying herself and finding the bottom-left corner.
England would have to wait until the 72nd minute to get their sixth, with Pan Hongyan’s poor clearance presenting the ball to Toone for the simplest of finishes from inside the box.
The rout was completed by Russo 12 minutes from time, with the Arsenal forward combining with Toone once again before finding the net despite the best efforts of Hongyan.
Data Debrief: Wiegman celebrates half-century in style
Ahead of kick-off, all the talk was surrounding England’s goalkeeping situation, with Hannah Hampton out injured and Khiara Keating pulling out of the squad on Saturday, but the Lionesses’ star-studded attack stole the show.
Indeed, England registered an expected goals (xG) total of 4.03 from their 19 shots, nine of which were on target, compared to China’s measly 0.33 from their six attempts, and though Stanway will get the plaudits for her hat-trick, Toone was arguably the pick of the bunch.
The Manchester United midfielder ended the contest with team-high totals for assists (three), chances created (three) and passes in the final third (32), with her contribution helping Wiegman reach another milestone during her England tenure.
England’s triumph was their 50th under Wiegman, who reached the landmark in just her 73rd match in charge (D13 L10), becoming only the second England manager to reach a half-century of wins after Hope Powell, who needed 103 games to hit that mark.