July 7 – England and Beth Mead kicked off their Euro 2022 party with a narrow 1-0 win against Austria in the tournament’s curtain-raiser in front of a record crowd for a Women’s Euro match of 68,871 fans at Old Trafford.
The much-anticipated finals tournament finally got underway on Wednesday and a fine strike from Mead, who had missed out on the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, kept England on course early on. Austria looked in danger of being swept aside, but held firm even though England dominated much of the match.
“We have shown different faces in this game,” said England coach Sarina Wiegmann. “Some good, some not so good. In the second half, we were too sloppy on the ball and not good enough in the transition. We should have scored a few times but we didn’t put the chances away. Don’t underestimate Austria, they are a very strong team.”
It was hardly a convincing win for the Lionesses, but they deserved the victory. The result was almost predictable after England prevailed last year against the same opponent with the same scoreline.
With Northern Ireland and Norway, who meet on Thursday, to come in Group A, the English will be confident about progressing to the knockout phase of a tournament that promises to be the biggest and best-ever European championship. The playing field is wide open with, arguably, six or seven teams having realistic hopes of lifting the trophy come July 31.
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