(Football news) England Women secured a 1-0 win over Austria Women in the opening Euro 2022 match at Old Trafford. A lob by Beth Mead was enough to get the result the Lionesses wanted despite it being a very unconvincing performance. Georgia Stanway provided the assist to Mead who lifted the ball over her Arsenal teammate Manuela Zinsberger to give her team the lead. Austria’s Carina Wenninger managed to clear the ball before it hit the back of the net but goal line technology along with VAR declared that the ball had crossed over the line.
With 68,871 fans at Old Trafford, it was a record attendance for a Women’s Euro match and the victory for England means that they now top Group A before Norway take on Ireland on Thursday at the St. Mary’s Stadium. Despite the poor performance, England Women did have their share of chances with Ellen White’s header being saved by Zinsberger inside the first 11 minutes while Lauren Hemp’s header narrowly missing the target just a few seconds later. The Lionesses had the opportunity to extend their advantage through White again who nodded wide a couple of times, much to her frustration.
Austria had the opportunity to level just before half-time when Millie Bright only half cleared Barbara Dunst's cross to Laura Feiersinger but the Austrian’s volley didn’t hit the target. Both teams struggled to find their rhythm in the second half but there were a few half chances as Fran Kirby’s attempt was saved by Zinsberger and the likes of Alessia Russo, Ella Toone and Chole Kelly were introduced at the hour mark to get some much needed momentum. In the final 10 minutes, England’s Mary Earps was finally called into action as she pushed away an effort by Dunst and went on to deny Nicole Billa.
Speaking after the match, England manager Sarina Wiegman said “It was an incredible occasion. There are no more words. Unbelievable. Playing here at Old Trafford, with 70,000 people making lots of noise, getting behind us, it was really incredible and I hope they keep coming, which they will. We were a little rushed in (the) final third. We did create lots of chances, but the final touch or the choice on the ball to shoot or to cross or take on someone, we can do that better. But the most important thing was that we scored one, kept a clean sheet, which was nice, and got the three points.
"In the huddle after the match I said it was a good win and congratulations for the first win in the tournament. This start is so important, it gives such a boost to the team and the crowd so that was very important. We had some very good moments in the game, we should have scored more, but we also had some hard moments which we got through, which was good. We had a couple of phases in the game. We started not great, then we got control of the game and pushed them back to their half. That made it very compact, very physical and well organised. We did well, we kept the ball moving, we found Keira (Walsh) a lot then we scored the goal, it was a really good goal, it would have helped to sore the second goal straight after.
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