By atomizing Norway (8-0) on Monday in Brighton, England has already secured first place in Group A and a ticket to the quarter-finals of its Euro football, of which it becomes again the big favourite.
With 6 points and taking into account the victory of Austria against Northern Ireland a little earlier (2-0), the English would finish at worst on equal points with the Austrians or the Norwegians, who have 3 units and will face each other on Friday, but since they beat both of these teams, they would be first in the group anyway.
The opening match had left everyone a bit unsatisfied, with a victory by the smallest of margins (1-0), due to a lack of efficiency, while Germany, against Denmark (4-0) or France against Italy (5-1) had seemed sharper.
But for their second match, the “Lionesses” settled the target with 6 goals on their first 8 shots on target, beating, less than 24 hours later, the French record with 5 goals in 45 minutes.
“I think I can be satisfied tonight,” joked coach Sarina Wiegman at a press conference, who regretted the lack of realism of her players.
– unrecognizable Norway –
Unrecognizable, Norway, which was classified among the possible outsiders before the competition due to the return to its ranks of the star striker of Lyon Ada Hegerberg, took on water from all sides.
The first half hour was a real nightmare for Maria Thorisdottir, the Norwegian and Manchester United defender, who caused the — generous — penalty of 1-0, converted by Georgia Stanway (12th), brought into play by Lauren Hemp on the 2-0 (15th) and lost a ball 25 meters from his goals on the 3-0 by Ellen White (29th).
“There are matches that we make plans for, we talk to the player for a long time, we expect it to be very competitive… But there, we managed to keep them away from our goal and honestly, I didn’t understand what was going on,” admitted Wiegman.
Beth Mead, already a decisive scorer against Austria, dug the score with a header (4-0, 34th), then after a slalom in the Norwegian defense (5-0, 38th), before White offered himself a doubled by diving at the far post to cut a tense cross from Fran Kirby (6-0, 41st).
England took the opportunity to largely rotate before the hour mark with three substitutions from the 57th.
But the Lionesses had the fangs and one of the substitutes, Alessia Russo, distinguished herself by scoring a 7th goal with a header (7-0, 66th), before Mead scored her third goal of the evening (8- 0, 81st), setting the record for the biggest victory of a Euro football, whether male or female.
This success also brings the unbeaten streak of the English to 16, a record for them, since the arrival of Wiegman on the bench, with a whopping 92 goals scored in this period of time, for 3 conceded.
“We have to keep our feet on the ground because we haven’t won anything yet”, obviously warned the English coach.
But they will be able to watch the group B matches on Tuesday between Denmark and Finland (6:00 p.m.) and especially Spain and Germany, both victorious on the first day, in complete relaxation.
From this group will emerge their opponent for the quarter-final which will take place in this same Brighton stadium. And it will certainly not lead off at kickoff.