Sarina Wiegman hails eight-goal England’s performance on ‘incredible evening’

July 11, 2022 Sports 1 Views

England boss Sarina Wiegman hailed her players’ efforts on an “incredible evening” after they secured their place in the quarter-finals of Euro 2022 with a record-breaking 8-0 hammering of Norway at the Amex Stadium.

The tournament hosts scored six times in a rampant first-half display, with Georgia Stanway’s 12th-minute penalty and a finish from Lauren Hemp three minutes later being followed by a brace apiece from Ellen White and Beth Mead.

That equalled the most amount of goals scored by one team in a Women’s Euros match, and England went on to register the competition’s biggest ever victory, surpassing their 6-0 win over Scotland in 2017, following a 66th-minute effort from substitute Alessia Russo and Mead completing her hat-trick late on.

Asked to describe her side’s display, Wiegman said: “Just a great performance.

“We kept just playing the game, also in the second half, and sometimes when you are 6-0 up players try to do different things, but we didn’t – we kept playing together and doing our task.

“An incredible evening, very nice – (but) stay grounded, because we don’t have anything yet.”

With the remarkable win in front of a crowd of 28,847 – from which cries of “football’s coming home” rang out at various stages – seeing them seal top spot in Group A, the Lionesses will be returning to Brighton a week on Wednesday to play a quarter-final against the runners-up in Group B, which features Germany and Spain.

Their group fixtures conclude with Friday’s meeting at St Mary’s with now-eliminated Northern Ireland, who had lost 2-0 to Austria earlier on Monday.

England had opened their campaign with last Wednesday’s 1-0 win over Austria at Old Trafford, with a competition-record attendance of just under 69,000.

And when it was put to Wiegman that if people did not know there was a Women’s Euros on, they did now, she said: “I don’t know, I think they already knew last Wednesday, because that was nice too.

“I just hope they enjoy, and that is what we hope to do – make the nation proud.

“We’ve had two games now, we’re trying to play our best game, and today we did. But it’s just three points – if you win 1-0 or 8-0, it doesn’t make a difference – we didn’t win anything yet.”