England thrash Northern Ireland as they ease into the Quarter-Finals

There was no lack of intensity from the Lionesses despite the absence of Sarina Wiegman as they put Northern Ireland to the sword with a 5-0 win after a spirited first third from Kenny Shiels’ side.

‘Football’s coming home’ echoed around a stadium in England once more as the hosts asserted their dominance over the tournament debutants.

England thought they had the dream start as the referee pointed to the spot for a handball against Southampton’s own Laura Rafferty. However, after a lengthy VAR check, the decision was overturned due to a handball by England’s Beth Mead in the build up.

Northern Ireland seemed to gain some solace from justice being served, as they threatened the English defence with balls in behind to Lauren Wade.

As the half wore on, the Lionesses started to overthrow the Northern Irish spirit with their quality on the ball. All that seemed to be lacking was the finishing touch as Ellen White, Lucy Bronze and Beth Mead all missed golden opportunities.

With half-time on the horizon, England finally got their breakthrough with a moment of quality from Fran Kirby. The tricky Chelsea attacking midfielder received the ball off the back of a blocked Beth Mead effort and opened her body out to guide the ball into the top corner, leaving Jacqueline Burns stranded.

Moments later, England had their lead doubled thanks to the tournament’s top scorer Mead. The Arsenal winger utilised intricate footwork inside a crowded area to get her effort off and direct her shot just out of reach of the outstretched Northern Irish keeper.

After half-time; things went from bad to worse for the Green and White army as substitute Alessia Russo came on and made an instant impact. Beth Mead was once again at the heart of the English attack as she cut the ball back to the 23-year-old for her second goal of the tournament.

However, the Manchester United player was not done there as Russo made it three for the tournament and four on the night for England with a glorious turn on the edge of the area taking out the entire Northern Irish defence topped off with a neat finish one on one with Burns.

The England coaching staff were aware of much bigger tasks ahead as they brought off key players to keep them fresh and fit for the knockout stages. These changes did disrupt the flow of the contest somewhat, but the Lionesses did eventually get a fifth in bizarre circumstances as Kelsie Burrows was the unfortunate player to direct a cross into her own net.

Throughout the game, there was tremendous support from both sets of fans, with both those in white and in green making themselves heard for the duration of the evening. Another excellent crowd of almost 31,000 for England, as this tournament continues to break boundaries in so many ways.

For Northern Ireland, this spells the end of their first ever major tournament, but as the scenes between the players and the fans at the end suggested, this was not about the results. It was about putting Northern Irish women’s football on the map and giving their absolute all against top quality sides. The hope now is that this will draw more funding into the women’s game in Northern Ireland and will allow their players to go full time.

Regardless of this, the players involved all made a small, but very vocal band of support incredibly proud across the duration of the three games.

As for England, they march on into the Quarter-Finals where they will return to the site of their record breaking demolition of Norway in Brighton. There, they will face Spain in a bid to reach their fourth successive major tournament semi-final.

The Lionesses will be hoping that Sarina Wiegman will be present for this contest, as they bid to keep their hopes alive of being the first ever England women’s side to win a major tournament. Wiegman guided her native Netherlands to Euro 2017 triumph in their home tournament and will surely be heralded as one of the greatest coaches in the world if she can do the same with England.

Their performances in the group stages will no doubt have drawn the attention of everyone in the tournament, but the task now is to execute these calibre of performances when it really counts.

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