{"id":902386,"date":"2026-04-18T08:02:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T08:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/902386\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T08:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T08:02:15","slug":"england-women-play-500th-game-landmark-lionesses-moments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/902386\/","title":{"rendered":"England women play 500th game: Landmark Lionesses moments"},"content":{"rendered":"

England’s Lionesses are no strangers to making history. <\/b><\/p>\n

The past decade has been rich in landmark moments; a first tournament medal, a first major trophy, and a first title defence – on foreign soil to boot.<\/p>\n

When Sarina Wiegman’s side play Iceland in Reykjavik on Saturday (17:30 BST) they will reach another milestone – the 500th fixture for England’s senior women’s team.<\/p>\n

The game is important for securing qualification for next year’s World Cup in Brazil, with England keen to win more silverware in the famous white shirt.<\/p>\n

But regardless of the result, the match will be etched in history as a reminder of how far the English women’s game has come.<\/p>\n

In 1921, the Football Association (FA) banned women’s football, considering the game “most unsuitable for females”, external<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The decision consigned women’s football to park pitches and small venues for half a century before the decision was overturned in 1971<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To mark 500 not out, BBC Sport takes a look at 11 defining moments in the history of England’s women.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England’s Lionesses are no strangers to making history. The past decade has been rich in landmark moments; a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":902387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,12,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-902386","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116424667937546219","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=902386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/902387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=902386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=902386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=902386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}