Brighton, England — When the goal was rained, the first two in the first 15 minutes, then two in a row, and two more on top of them, all before half-time, England messaged Was not considered to be sending.
The victory in the opening round of the European Women’s Soccer Championship this summer is quite satisfying and is not a spectacular first step towards a grand prize never won before. However, while Lioness had only scored one goal, England’s top rivals in the title filled the net and raised their stakes.
Norway scored four goals in the first match. Spain and Germany soon did the same. After France fired five times past Italy on Sunday, perhaps the host country of the tournament felt it needed to show that it could do the same.
Therefore, England scored 8 points.
In a competitive tournament, less than a week later, was there a Norwegian 8-0 thrash on Monday night in front of a delighted crowd in a resort town on the south coast of England? I don’t know. The most amazing result ever.
Women’s football is changing rapidly in Europe, but the best teams meet infrequently and it can be difficult to determine which team is ahead. Good players don’t make good teams. A good team doesn’t necessarily need a good player. And there are few top-power clashes, the last euro is 2017, the eternity of the ongoing evolution of women’s football on the continent, and data are still difficult to obtain. After all, you can learn a lot from a biased victory. A 20-0 victory There is even less to reveal.
Spain arrived at the tournament as one of their favorites, but this year’s world player Alexia Pteras was injured in a knee injury, which quickly shook his hopes. France has left two of the best players at home. Germany brought depth, but not a brand star.
England vs Norway were considered to be completely different. It’s a true test of a strong team and a rare meeting of equality. And it wasn’t.
Georgia Stanway started scoring in the 12th minute, converting the penalty after Ellen White was drawn into the 18-yard box. Three minutes later, Lauren Hemp scored two points with a cross from Beth Mead. Subsequent goals were blurry. White first took a walk alone after stripping off the defenders. Mead got the header first in the 34th minute and some decent footwork in close quarters second in the 38th minute.
White had a sliding finish on the back post in the 41st minute, with a crowd and teammates holding his head on his second and sixth appearances in England. But England wasn’t over. Alessia Russo replaced White in the 57th minute, and she was on the score sheet nine minutes later.
Norway then retreated to 5th place, which was hardly a problem. By the time England finished eighth, the Norwegians called it night when Mead completed the hat-trick and finished the rebound. Withdrawn and pulled to live to fight another day. The cunning wing, Gro Reiten, left shortly thereafter.
Neither team had the expected results. Both started the tournament as they wanted. England defeated Austria in front of nearly 69,000 fans and was the largest spectator in history to watch the Women’s Euro match. Norway beat Northern Ireland 4-1 a day later. Ireland. Norway’s wider margins, like England’s one-goal victory, somehow couldn’t tell how dominant the winner was.
This match was unusual in this tournament. At meetings of teams that are considered the same, the teams that exchanged wins at recent meetings looked like a good match.
England have excluded Norway from the last two World Cups, including a 3-0 victory in the 2019 quarterfinals in France. But it was a very different Norway. Although talented, there was no predatory Hegelberg who left the national team for several years to protest the second-class treatment by the national football federation.
A long layoff from a knee injury caused a change of heart earlier this year, and her return changed expectations for both her and her country.
They remain tattered as they are. But Monday is the night of England, from beginning to end, from end to end.
