Dominant England brush South Korea aside in Milton Keynes

England Lionesses made light work of South Korea in their Arnold Clark Cup opener at Stadium MK on Thursday night, cruising to a 4-0 win.

Dominant from the opening whistle, the European champions had to wait for a penalty five minutes before the break to open the scoring, but after Georgia Stanway fired England ahead, the floodgates opened in the second half. Chloe Kelly, Alessia Russo and Lauren James all found the back of the net, led brilliantly by skipper and home-town hero Leah Williamson, who orchestrated play in the centre of the park.

More than 21,000 fans were in attendance for the back-to-back Arnold Clark Cup matches, having earlier in the day seen Belgium score a last-minute winner through Tessa Wullaert, against the run of play, to see off Italy 2-1.

England, who won the competition last season building up to the Euros, should have taken the lead inside three minutes when Lauren James was set free by Georgia Stanway, but her effort missed the target.

Korea should have capitalised a minute later when Cho So-hyun took aim, but it was straight down the barrel for Mary Erps to gather.

The European champions though began to assert their dominance thereafter, with Williamsondictating play, allowing the wingers either side of her to exploit the space Korea were leaving out wide, with keeper Kim Jung-mi on her toes, denying Ella Toone with a good stop on 15 minutes, before James again missed the target with a much tougher chance a couple of minutes later.

Hemmed into their own half for much of the opening 45 minutes, Korea continued to ride their luck as England dusted off the rust, having not played together since mid-November, with Chloe Kelly's shot coming off the outside of her boot and well-wide, Stanway heading Alex Greenwood's corner onto the roof and Millie Bright firing wide from range.

Alessia Russo did everything but score with a brilliant turn and shot seven minutes from half-time, but saw her effort come back off the inside of the post. Seconds later though, James was cut down in the penalty area to win a penalty for the hosts, which Stanway duly stuck away to give England the lead heading into the break. Such was their dominance, they held 83 per cent of possession in the first-half.

And barely 20 seconds after the restart, Chloe Kelly's deflected effort sailed into the net to double England's advantage.

Russo then got her reward with England's third four minutes later, lifting home Alex Greenwood's cross.

England continued to pour forwards, and with the best move of the game, Stanway was a lick of paint away from making it 4-0 on 62 minutes, thumping the bar from just inside the box before manager Sarina Wiegman began to ring the changes as she looked to the bench to freshen things up.

James, having missed those earlier chances, finally got her first international goal with 12 minutes to go. Starting the move in the centre of the park, James offloaded to Toone to drive on, picking the ball up just inside the box to smash home England's fourth.