MY ACCOUNT
The emphatic nature of England’s 8-0 win over Norway came as a surprise even to Lionesses manager Sarina Wiegman.
The host nation of the Women’s Euro 2022 spectacularly dismantled their opponents at the Amex Stadium in Brighton on Monday, with Georgia Stanway, Lauren Hemp, Beth Mead (three), Ellen White (two) and Alessia Russo giving England an historic win.
It was the first time a team had scored seven goals in a European Championships game – in either the men’s or women’s tournaments – and sees England qualify from Group A as winners with a game to spare.
England were 6-0 up at half-time, the first time a team has scored as many in the opening 45 minutes of a Women’s Euros game, just 24 hours after France became the first team to score five in the first half in their win against Italy.
“We didn’t expect to make such a big win, but we played really well,” Wiegman told BBC Sport, adding her thought in the first half was: “What’s going on here?”
Speaking at a news conference, she continued: “Of course, the win, great win. The way we played, kept playing the way we did second half, kept the ball going. I’m really happy with the performance and to go through.
“It becomes easy when you’re 2-0 up quickly, then we could use the momentum and play our possession game… You could tell the players enjoyed it on the pitch.”
England scored twice more in the second period, with Russo bagging the seventh shortly after replacing White, who was among a number of players rested by Wiegman once the game was clearly won.
“Sometimes when you’re 6-0 up, players try to do their own things, but we didn’t. We kept together trying to do our own tasks,” she added.
“I was a little surprised [Norway] didn’t put more pressure on us. Pressure on the ball. They did play well second half. We just played our game and tried to exploit spaces.”
Hat-trick-hero Beth Mead also spoke at a news conference after some celebrating, saying: “We were having a nice little sing-song… Amazing night, we deserve to enjoy it.”
Mead has now scored 18 goals in the 16 games since Wiegman took charge, also adding 11 assists.
When asked where this form had come from, she said: “I couldn’t tell you. I’m just enjoying every minute of my football. The way we’re playing, it’s just a pleasure to play with these players.”
Mead was also asked what she’d be doing with the match ball, jokingly replying: “My mum might try to steal this one from me.”
