England have won the first group match of the European Championship for women. At Old Trafford, the team of national coach Sarina Wiegman was 1-0 too strong for Austria. Beth Mead scored the only goal of the game in the packed stadium. There were 68,871 spectators in the stadium where Manchester United play its home games. Never before has a match at a European Championship for women attracted so many visitors.
After seventeen minutes of play, Mead opened the scoring. The attacker controlled a bow ball from Fran Kirby to the chest and shot in from the bottom of the bar. The goal-line technology had to be consulted, as the leather didn’t obviously end up behind the goal-line. In the end, the goal turned out to be clean. Austria came close with a sharp cross, but the ball was headed away by the English defense just before striker Nicole Billa.
Austria started the second half with bravado, although they were not able to create immediate danger. Although England was in control of the game for the most part, the Lionesses did not prevent the tension from rising in the final phase. A hard shot by Austrian Barbara Dunst was tapped from the far corner by goalkeeper Mary Earps. Also in the last minute, the closing post had to stop a shot from the edge of the penalty area, but the three points were eventually pulled over the line.
Both countries will resume the tournament on Monday, July 11. Then Austria plays against Northern Ireland and England takes on Norway. The the Dutch Lionesses will play their first game of the tournament on Saturday-evening. Sweden is the opponent in this. In addition, the the Dutch shares group C with Switzerland and Portugal, who will compete against each other earlier that evening.
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