Fair to say that it was a convincing performance
England’s women’s team put on a rampant display against Latvia at Doncaster’s Keepmoat Stadium, securing a 20-0 win in a World Cup qualifier.
The Lionesses came into the tie on the back of a hard-fought win against Austria in Sunderland on Saturday.
Sarina Wiegman’s side defeated Latvia 10-0 the last time the two sides met, with Ellen White needing just two goals to break Kelly Smith’s all-time Lionessess goalscoring record.
England had scored an impressive 33 goals in their five Women’s World Cup qualifying wins coming into Tuesday’s fixture, conceding none.
In contrast, Latvia had failed to register a point and had conceded 26 goals, scoring on just two occasions.
England Women grind out a narrow 20-0 win over Latvia pic.twitter.com/7Ds8IaJVZ2
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) November 30, 2021
It didn’t take long for the Lionesses to take the lead, scoring their first goal in the third minute through Beth Mead.
White equalled Smith’s record of 46 goals for England in the sixth minute with a spectacular strike, breaking the record just three minutes later with another smart finish.
Mead had her hat-trick in the 24th minute after grabbing two more goals in quick succession, with White also securing a match-ball to make it 9-0 just after the break.
Jess Carter opened her account for England folllowing a smart penalty finish from Georgia Stanway, with the goals continuing to flow as Jill Scott – who had only been on the pitch for less than 10 minutes – made it 13-0 with a clever head at the back post after a stunning cross from Alex Greenwood.
England’s 14th goal came in the 71st minute, which would’ve marked the biggest winning margin ever for the Three Lions.
However, Wiegman’s team continued to be ruthless with their finishing as Hemp grabbed the third hat-trick of the night with a rifling strike.
Alessia Russo also secured hat-trick as England made it 18-0 before Bethany England scored the penultimate goal of the night in the 84th minute.
It was finally 20-0 when Hemp scored her fourth goal from a corner, which Latvia were unable to clear – she controlled the ball and finished past the goalkeeper to end a good night for the hosts.
In total, the Lionesses had 10 different goalscorers, four of whom got hat-tricks. They also had 63 shots, with 30 coming on target.
A difficult night for the away side saw them fail to record a shot and only have 14% possession.
The full list of England goalscorers was:
- Mead (3′, 12′, 23′)
- White (6′, 9′, 49′)
- Hemp (18′, 44′, 76′, 88′)
- Toone (42′)
- Stanway (52′ pen)
- Carter (56′)
- England (61′, 84′)
- Scott (67′)
- Russo (71′, 81′, 82′)
- Nobbs (80′)
England’s next round of fixtures sees them face-off against North Macedonia and Northern Ireland in April 2022.
Related links:
- UEFA chief of women’s football comes out against Women’s Super League
- Man Utd Women to play first Super League game with fans at Old Trafford
- Megan Rapinoe labels Manchester United ‘disgraceful’ for not launching women’s team until 2018
