Australia end England's 30-game unbeaten run

England 0-2 Australia

Australia fired a warning shot to the Republic of Ireland as they ended England's 30-game unbeaten streak with a 2-0 friendly victory over the Lionesses in front of 14,489 at Brentford's Gtech Community Stadium.

The world number-four ranked Lionesses, who lifted the inaugural women's Finalissima trophy at Wembley last week, were favourites to beat the 10th-ranked but injury-plagued Matildas.

But Sarina Wiegman's side were behind at the break after Chelsea striker Sam Kerr took advantage of an error from Leah Williamson and Charlotte Grant made it two after the restart with a nodded effort that deflected off the England captain.

It was the last scheduled match for European champions England ahead of the World Cup in New Zealand and Australia, where the Lionesses begin their campaign against Haiti in just over 100 days.

Co-hosts Australia take on Vera Pauw's Ireland in Sydney on 20 July.

Australia head coach Tony Gustavsson had elected to rest Kerr for the Matidas' 1-0 loss in Friday's Scotland friendly so she was fresh to face England.

It was the hosts who tried to strike first as the skies opened and Alessia Russo attempted to poke the ball past Mackenzie Arnold from a soggy slide but could only toe it directly into the awaiting arms of the West Ham goalkeeper.

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Arnold was soon able to bat away Lauren Hemp's delivery into the box but made contact with Russo in the process, the number nine - once again earning a start in favour of Aston Villa's Rachel Daly - deemed fit to continue after a brief pause.

Georgia Stanway's lofted effort was scooped up by Arnold and Australia survived a handful of set-pieces by the