England survive Haiti scare to get off to a winning start | OneFootball

England squeezed past a resilient Haiti side to get their World Cup campaign off to a winning start.

Scorers: Stanway 29′.

The Lionesses scored the only goal of the game midway through the first half after a VAR check had discovered that Haiti midfielder Batcheba Louis had handled the ball in the box.

Georgia Stanway stepped up to see her penalty saved. by Kerly Theus but the referee ordered a re-take after the Haiti goalkeeper was adjudged to have come off her line.

Stanway made no mistake the second time around, keeping her cool to slot the ball into the bottom corner from 12 yards.

Sarina Wiegman’s side struggled to play their best game in Brisbane with Haiti’s physical gameplan disrupting their play for the most part but Theus did have to be on form to deny Alessia Russo on multiple occasions in the second half, a fine tipped save from a header the pick of the bunch.

Mary Earps had to be on hand to keep out a fine effort from Melchie Dumornay but England survived to pick up three points from their opening game.

They take on Denmark next Friday, when Haiti will face China.