Alessia Russo double for England sparks Women’s World Cup qualifying win against Ukraine | OneFootball

Stressed, anxious or doubtful after a goalless first half? Not these ­England players, who remained fully confident in their ability and found a flurry of ­second-half goals to begin their ­Women’s World Cup ­qualifying ­campaign with a 6-1 win against Ukraine.

It helps when you have players with the firepower of Alessia Russo, Georgia Stanway and Jess Park all thriving and scoring twice. The European champions may feel they should have won by a greater ­margin: they were profligate in the first half, but eventually opened the floodgates as Park continued her bright ­Manchester United form.

The match was played on ­neutral territory in Antalya, Turkey, because of the war in Ukraine, and there appeared to be no more than 250 ­people in the stands, including 100 England fans. Sarina Wiegman said on Monday the Lionesses had received assurances from the UK ­government they were safe in ­Turkey but they were ­keeping in close ­contact with authorities monitoring the war in the Middle East.

England appeared focused, though, and moved the ball quickly to dominate the contest. With Ukraine sitting deep from the start, England were on top but wasteful from goalscoring positions. They enjoyed 80% of first-half possession and had 40 touches of the ball in their opponents’ penalty area before the break, but did not score until the second half.

Asked by ITV4 if she had needed to have tough words with her team at the break, Wiegman said: “We were disappointed we didn’t score [in the first half] but you don’t need tough words for them because ­everyone is giving their best and doing what we needed to do. It helped also that we swapped our wingers from one side to the other and we came inside a little more.

“We totally controlled the game. We tried to be a little more patient and shoot from the edge of the box, which we did a lot better in the second half. Every moment we lost the ball, we were on it, that shows the mentality of the team.”

After Russo established a two‑goal lead within six minutes of the restart, England defended a set piece poorly and Ukraine scored from their first attack through Yana Kalinina, but Stanway restored the two-goal cushion from the penalty spot, then rifled into the top corner to make it 4-1. Stanway later provided a low pass for Park to make it 5-1, before Park curled in a classy finish that justified Wiegman’s decision to start her.

The lively Russo had already had chances to collect a first-half hat-trick, first with a low shot well saved, before her free header looped over the crossbar and later another header was blocked, after Stanway had a driven effort saved and Laura Blindkilde Brown’s effort bounced down off the underside of the bar.

Russo’s Arsenal teammate Lotte Wubben-Moy started the game after Alex Greenwood picked up a “minor muscle injury” and she almost opened the scoring with a close-range backheel that was blocked on the line. Shortly ­afterwards, ­Lauren Hemp ran through the defence centrally but her right-footed shot trickled wide of a post.

After half-time Wiegman gave a senior international debut to Poppy Pattinson at left-back, in place of Taylor Hinds. Playing for her country for the first time since the Euro 2025 final, the captain, Leah Williamson, was given a rest, replaced by Esme Morgan. Wiegman also switched her wingers, with Hemp moving to the right and Park to the left, and that worked tremendously.

Russo was soon collecting a Keira Walsh pass, turning inside and ­slotting in the opener, before Hemp cut inside on to her left foot to supply a low cross for Russo’s second.

Stanway’s two goals lifted her to ninth in the Lionesses’ all-time scorer standings, with 31 goals, ­moving above Marieanne Spacey-Cale (30 goals), while with her double Russo is on 29, in 11th.

Russo said: “We had to wait for the spaces to open up but when it did we were really clinical. We knew we had the quality in us, it was just about executing it in the moments. Our messaging in the dressing room [at half-time] was that we were happy with how we were doing but now we needed to find that ruthless edge.”

They will now want to take that ­ruthlessness into Saturday, when they host Iceland in Nottingham. Spain, the world champions, are also in this group, from which only one side can qualify automatically for the finals in Brazil in­ summer next year. The Lionesses have met Spain in the past two major finals.

Header image: [Photograph: Reuters]