With the retirement of England’s record goalscorer Ellen White in the wake of last summer’s Euros triumph, much of the responsibility for providing the side’s attacking threat could now fall upon the shoulders of Alessia Russo.
Russo, 24, who has just moved from Manchester United to Arsenal on a free transfer, grew in influence as that tournament progressed, regularly emerging from the bench to replace White and scoring twice in a 5-0 thrashing of Northern Ireland, as well as netting arguably the goal of the tournament in the semi-final: an utterly outrageous backheel to embarrass Sweden.
