Lewis Dunk makes England debut in victory against United States

Brighton & Hove Albion defender Lewis Dunk made his England debut as the Three Lions beat the United States 3-0 in a friendly at Wembley this evening.
Lewis Dunk. Picture by Kieran Cleeves/BHAFCLewis Dunk. Picture by Kieran Cleeves/BHAFC
Lewis Dunk. Picture by Kieran Cleeves/BHAFC

Dunk wore the number six shirt and started alongside Everton's Michael Keane in central defence, while Bournemouth striker Callum Wilson also made his debut and scored the Three Lions' third.

The 26-year-old is the first Brighton player to represent England since Steve Foster in 1982. Tommy Cook and Peter Ward are the other players to have pulled on the Three Lions shirt while playing for Albion.

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England started on the front foot and had all of the possession in the early exchanges, before Dunk had to head clear a dangerous cross in the sixth minute at the other end.

England had penalty appeals waved away when Wilson went down under a Brad Guzan challenge on ten minutes.

England continued to boss the game but had a let off when Christian Pulisic broke through one-on-one but was denied by an excellent Jordan Pickford save.

That got the Three Lions going as they quickly went 2-0 ahead with two goals in as many minutes. First, former Brighton loanee Jesse Lingard beautifully curled a 20-yarder into the far top corner on 25 minutes and Trent Alexander-Arnold then drilled home the second from Jadon Sancho's pass.

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Fabian Delph captained the Three Lions until Wayne Rooney came on to make his 120th and final England appearance in the 57th minute.

Chances were fewer and far between to start the second half until United States' Bobby Wood headed over on 65 minutes, before Rooney curled an effort straight at Brad Guzan six minutes later.

Wilson side-footed an Alexander-Arnold cross wide on 75 minutes, before the Bournemouth striker turned home a Delph cross two minutes later to make it 3-0.

Rooney almost got on the scoresheet in injury-time but Guzan kept out his low effort at full-stretch.

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Dunk looked comfortable in possession throughout the game as he played the full 90 minutes. Apart from one misplaced pass out of play in the first half, he had an assured debut at the back as England kept a clean sheet.

ENGLAND: Pickford (McCarthy 45); Alexander-Arnold, Keane, Dunk, Chilwell (Dier 57); Delph, Winks (Loftus-Cheek 69); Sancho, Alli (Henderson 57), Lingard (Rooney 57); Wilson (Rashford 79). Subs: Kane, Butland, Walker, Sterling, Barkley, Stones.

Att: 68,155.

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