Keira Walsh relishes coming up against tough opposition in the Arnold Clark Cup

Keira Walsh believes the Arnold Clark Cup will prove to be a yardstick for England to measure themselves against some of the world’s best ahead of a home European Championships this summer.

The Lionesses host three other nations ranked in the top 10 as they come up against Canada, Spain and Germany in the next week.

The opening game comes against Canada at the Riverside on Thursday night as Sarina Wiegman faces the first stern test of her England tenure.

A post shared by Keira Walsh (@keirawalsh)

Since taking charge in September, she has led England to six wins from six with an aggregate score of 53-0 as they brushed aside inferior opposition in World Cup qualifying.

Wiegman admits the standard of the opponents has been poor and was a big driving force behind the round-robin Arnold Clark Cup, which also sees England play Spain at Carrow Road and Germany at Molineux.

With a home tournament now coming into view, Manchester City midfielder Walsh is looking forward to squaring up against strong opposition and seeing how England cope with the challenge.

“I think it’s fair to say a lot of these teams do have some of the best midfielders in the world,” she said.

I think playing these three games before the Euros is such an important thing for us just to see where we're at, really, as a team- Keira Walsh

“I think in those (qualifying) games, for me, it is about staying switched on and obviously, the opposition didn’t have a lot of attacks.

“But I think not just for me, but the whole team, it’d be nice to see how we (are) tested defensively and kind of how we’re going to press and whether it’s a mid-block or seeing how we cope in those situations and equally, then how do we then play out of the pressure and that sort of thing.

“S