It took just 41 seconds after kick-off at Carrow Road for “football’s coming home” to break out in the stands. In the eyes of women’s football fans, never mind Sunday, football “came home”’ two years ago, and on Friday England took another big step towards ensuring they will be in Switzerland next summer to defend their title.
It was Manchester City’s Lauren Hemp who was truly coming home, as the winger from North Walsham returned to Norwich, where she began her career at the club’s centre of excellence, and a slight disappointment for the fans, on a predominantly positive night for the Lionesses, was that their local heroine was not on the scoresheet. Nonetheless, Hemp, like many of her teammates, was in strong form as the World Cup finalists outclassed their opponents.
Buoyed by their crucial victory in France last time out and the much-improved performance that had accompanied it, Sarina Wiegman’s team arrived in a confident mood, greeted by eager fans whose enthusiasm was not remotely dampened by the inclement conditions. The non-stop sound of air horns echoing around a packed Carrow Road may have, at times, given off the vibe of a send-off friendly immediately before a major tournament, but the reality was that this was a vitally important game for the defending European champions, in their penultimate qualifier. Only a win would do.
Inside five minutes, they had already asserted their authority, putting together the definition of a team goal. After Jess Carter took a throw-in inside England’s half, there were 29 passes in the buildup to the goal and every single Lioness touched the ball. Eventually, Beth Mead set up her Arsenal teammate Alessia Russo with a deft touch into the box that enabled a composed Russo to take the ball around Courtney Brosnan and open the scoring. Wiegman’s smile indicated exactly how pleased she was to see the passing drills undertaken at St George’s Park coming to fruition.
“Those are the most enjoyable goals because it’s the team,” Wiegman said. “The team created the chance all together, from the back to the front. Every goal is enjoyable but this goal was even more so.”
The head coach elected to start Hannah Hampton in goal, ahead of Mary Earps, and after the game Wiegman confirmed the two of them are fighting for the jersey. For most of the game, Hampton had very little to do, especially in the first half where the Lionesses were dominating and their dynamic front three of Hemp, Mead and Russo caused the visitors real trouble.
Eileen Gleeson’s side, travelling to East Anglia without any points from their previous four games in this qualifying group and already guaranteed to have to settle for a place in the playoff process later this year, could have been forgiven for fearing the worst. Yet, on a night when the world champions Spain were surprisingly beaten 2-1 by the Czech Republic and the eight-time European champions Germany succumbed to a 3-0 loss away to Iceland, England could not take anything for granted and the Irish came through the early storm to settle into the game.
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The visitors’ work rate was admirable, but their hope of producing a shock result was severely hampered early in the second half when the Liverpool centre-back Niamh Fahey cynically pulled back Hemp’s shirt and conceded the clearest of penalties, which was emphatically converted by Georgia Stanway to double England’s lead. Alex Greenwood had scored one spot kick and missed another in April’s fixture in Dublin – which ended in a 2-0 win for the Lionesses – but Stanway sent Brosnan the wrong way to score for a second consecutive game.
Wiegman felt England should have scored more goals, and then she was “very frustrated” when the visitors scored in stoppage time, with the substitute Julie-Ann Russell volleying on the turn after a long throw, to score the Republic of Ireland’s first goal of the campaign. England must now avoid defeat in Sweden on Tuesday to qualify automatically and avoid joining the Republic of Ireland in the playoffs.