What should have been a relaxing build-up to this dead rubber turned chaotic when it was announced that Wiegman would miss the match after contracting the virus, putting her presence in England’s quarter-final next Wednesday in doubt. Wiegman has five days to recover. It will be touch and go, but at least she knows her players can perform whether they are on the touchline or not – although it will be much harder to do so against better opposition. England crushed Northern Ireland 5-0 in the final Group A game on Friday night Arjan Veurink took charge of the team as Sarina Wiegman was ruled out with Covid-19 Northern Ireland, the lowest-ranked team in the tournament, had already been eliminated before Friday night, while England were crowned group winners after an 8-0 win over Norway. All the big teams have suffered some kind of blow either before or during this tournament and it was too good to be true that England would avoid some sort of setback. Wiegman’s assistant Arjan Veurink was in charge at St Mary’s on Friday night and is perhaps the next best thing to the England boss himself. Veurink has worked closely with Wiegman for five years and was by her side when she led the Netherlands to victory at Euro 2017. The players spoke of the important role she plays tactically and she was able to send the right message ahead of this game. Fran Kirby opened the scoring for the Lionesses in the first half of Friday night’s game Beth Mead extended her lead with her fifth goal of the tournament this summer “Really important [to continue the momentum], of course we want to continue the good journey we’re on right now,” said Veurink. “I think Sarina will be very happy with this look. “Sarina is doing well, unfortunately she is not well enough to be here. As we all know that every person reacts differently to Covid, it is difficult for me to say anything about it. He will not join the team live [at the moment] but as Covid taught us, we can do a lot of things digitally too. “She was in contact with our technical staff, she had her influence on the game as well. I think the team showed that whatever happens, we have a lot of quality, which made me more satisfied.” As we all know Sarina is well prepared for a lot of the scenarios we talked about and we know that’s the world we live in right now, so we were prepared and we talked as individual staff members and including the boss in the bigger picture. Sarina is very good at managing staff. It’s back to business as usual. Most of the things we prepared very well already.” Alessia Russo came on as a substitute and set the crowd alight with two goals for England Kelsey Barrows – who came on as a substitute for Northern Ireland – scored an own goal The Lionesses will find out whether it will be Spain or Denmark in next Wednesday’s quarter-final after the two teams meet tonight. Spain, stacked with Barcelona players, would likely be a tougher test. While Veurink is a capable deputy, England desperately need their influential manager back on board and, ideally, on the training pitch for at least one pre-match session. Wiegman had said not to expect rotation from the side that beat Norway 8-0, despite England already leading Group A, and stuck to her word by naming an unchanged starting line-up.
MATCH DETAILS AND PLAYER RATINGS
England (4-2-3-1): Earps 6.5, Bronze 7 (Carter 74), Bright 6 (Greenwood 45, 6), Williamson 6, Daly 6, Walsh 8, Stanway 6.5 (Tune 45, 7 ), Kirby 7 , Mead 7.5, Hemp 7 (Kelly 61, 6), White 6 (Russo 45, 7.5) Subs not used: Roebuck, Hampton, Scott, Parris, Kelly, England, Wubben-Moy Reservation: No Goals: Kirby 40, Mead 44, Russo 48, 53, Burrows OG 76 Director: Sarina Wiegman (Arjan Veurink) 7 Northern Ireland (4-4-2): Burns 7, McKenna 6, Nelson 6 (Hutton 87), McFadden 6.5, Holloway 6 (Maggie 66, 6, 6), Wade 7, Furness 6 (Caldwell 80), Rafferty 6 (Barrows 66, 6), Vance 6, K McGuinness 6, Callaghan 6 (Wilson 87) Subs not used: Flaherty, Andrews, McCarron, Turner, Hutton, Wilson, McDaniel, C McGuinness Reservation: None Targets: None Manager: Kenny Shiels 6 Referee: Esther Staubli 6 Attendances: 30,785 He believes in pace and there is no doubt that this England team has found its groove. However, Northern Ireland were not here to be sidelined in the first 45 minutes and actually had the first shot on target as Lauren Wade ghosted behind Rachel Daly a little too easily before firing straight at Mary Earps. England thought they had a penalty when referee Esther Stubaly pointed to the spot after Georgia Stanway’s shot hit Laura Rafferty on the arm. But the official was advised to look at the screen and after some discussion, decided that Beth Mead had manipulated the rally and reversed her decision. Mead then had a shot blocked on the line by Julie Nelson before Jackie Burns tipped Millie Bright’s long-range shot round the post as the home side piled on the pressure. Ellen White should have scored the first goal when she latched on to Lucy Bronze’s ball but the striker’s effort went wide. Another chance went begging as Bronze headed Lauren Hemp’s free kick wide. Wiegman talked about her team being ruthless, but it turned out to be anything but. Stanway saw another try blocked on the line, this time Rebecca Holloway getting in the way. But then came a moment of magic from Kirby just before half-time. The ball bounced forward to the edge of the bxo and she opened her body to fire a shot into the top right corner. Northern Ireland’s heads dropped and a minute later England had a second as Mead’s deflected effort from the inside fooled Burns and rolled into the bottom left corner. England made three changes at half-time with Russo, Ella Toone and Alex Greenwood coming off the bench and within 132 seconds of the restart one of them was on the scoresheet. Mead played a one-two with Toone before crossing for Russo, who headed into the bottom right corner. Russo has impressed every time she comes off the bench and proved too much for the Northern Ireland defense as she fired in her second goal. The striker controlled Toone’s pass on the half-turn before finishing Burns emphatically. There was an unfortunate own goal for substitute Kelsie Burrows, who turned Mead’s cross into her own net, before Russo missed a hat-trick opportunity by firing home from close range. But the most important thing for England was that everyone finished the game without injury. As auditions go, this was an impressive performance for Werrink, who has proved he can be the unknown England need in Wiegman’s absence. But the sooner their leader returns, the better. Relive the action with Sportsmail’s live blog of Friday’s Euro 2022 women’s clash between Northern Ireland and England.
