Leah Williamson lifted her fourth trophy as England captain when the Lionesses defeated Brazil on penalties after a 1-1 draw to win the first ever women’s Finalissima, as the European and South American champions went head to head at Wembley. Brazil captain Rafaelle missed a crucial penalty in the shoot-out, smashing her spot-kick onto the crossbar to hand England the advantage.

Brazil and Rafaelle improved in the second half at Wembley and took that momentum into a friendly against Germany, which the Selecao won 2-1 in front of 30,000 fans in Nuremberg.

England on the other hand tasted their first ever defeat under Sarina Wiegman, losing 2-0 to an Australia side that were without the injured Caitlin Foord and Steph Catley. Leah Williamson came up against Sam Kerr and in an interview after the match owned up for her mistake for Kerr’s goal, when her header back towards Mary Earps was intercepted by the Chelsea striker, who made it 1-0 to Australia. Lotte Wubben-Moy was an unused substitute.

Frida Maanum’s Norway lost 4-2 to Spain on Thursday night. The Arsenal star was booked in first half added time and substituted in the 76th minute, but went on to hit a brace in the 3-3 draw with Sweden, including a 95th minute equaliser.

Switzerland played out a 0-0 draw with China with Noelle Maritz playing most of the second half off the substitutes bench, whilst there were ninety minutes for Lia Walti. Walti would then announce she was taking a “short personal break” from Switzerland and Arsenal, writing on social media: “For personal reasons, the last weeks and months have been difficult, and mentally and psychologically exhausting. It has been a huge challenge to maintain the focus and trying to perform on my “usual level” every day. Therefore, I have asked my club and the national team for a short personal break. I left nationalteam today and will take some time off and try to focus on my wellbeing and will, hopefully, come back recovered and with my batteries recharged”.

Maritz played the entirety of Switzerland’s 2-1 defeat to Iceland, starting at left-back.

Stina Blackstenius and the talented midfielder Kathrine Kuhl went head to head as Sweden took on Denmark. Blackstenius played 77 minutes whilst Kuhl featured for the entire game, a 1-0 win for her side thanks to a 93rd minute goal from former Aston Villa striker Stine Larsen. Blackstenius picked up an assist from the bench in Sweden’s draw with Norway.

Kuhl was in action again as Denmark beat Japan 1-0 to cap off a successful international break.

There was also a last minute winner in Austria’s 3-2 victory over Belgium, but from an unlikely Arsenal source. Laura Wienroither was the hero in Austria’s comeback win, showing great composure to chest the ball down in the box, taking it past the Belgium defenders before finishing past Nicky Evrard. The Arsenal right back then played the entirety of her side’s win over Czech Republic.

Victoria Pelova played 90 minutes on the right wing in the Netherlands’ 1-0 defeat to Euro 2022 finalists Germany, before starting against Poland in a 4-1 victory. Vivianne Miedema joined up with the Dutch camp to visit their training session ahead of the Poland game.

Republic of Ireland captain Katie McCabe played every minute of her country’s trip to the USA. Ireland lost 2-0 in Austin before a narrow 1-0 defeat in St Louis in the early hours of this morning in a very creditable showing against the current World Cup holders.

Sabrina D’Angelo was called up to the Canada squad but watched their defeat to France from the bench.