England captain Leah Williamson says the Lionesses fear no one after they booked a place in the quarter-finals of Euro 2022 after thrashing Norway 8-0 last night.
The Lionesses ran out comfortable winners here in Brighton, setting a new record for the most goals scored in a European Championship game — both men’s and women’s.
Georgia Stanway started the rout with a penalty in the 12th minute and England score five more before the break, with Beth Mead and Ellen White finding the net twice and Lauren Hemp also getting in on the act.
Mead completed her hat-trick in the second half, meaning she is now the tournament’s top scorer, and substitute Alessia Russo also got on the scoresheet.
England are through to the quarter-finals as winners of Group A, meaning they have the luxury of resting players for Friday’s last group game, against Northern Ireland.
After that, the Lionesses will likely face Germany or Spain, two of the favourites to win the tournament, in the quarter-finals, but Williamson says the squad are relishing the tests to come after last night’s win.
“I don’t think we feared anyone coming in,” she said. “There’s a lovely quote that I like, ‘nobody wins afraid of losing’. That’s not the attitude that we have. We go into every game to win. Of course, the stakes get higher and higher, and we wanted to get through the group. We will take every game as it comes. We’ve got another game to build on at the back end of the week.
“Hopefully, whatever team we come up against, we’ll know our strengths. They’ll also have strengths, that’s the beauty of this competition and especially a Euros.
“It’s a very difficult tournament because all the teams are of such a high standard. I’m very excited for any test, but of course a win like today’s doesn’t do any harm to the confidence, does it?”
England put in a stunning attacking display to see off Norway, who could not live with the Lionesses’s firing front-three.
Williamson, who was once again playing at centre-back, said it was a joy to watch and she hopes England’s attacking football under manager Sarina Wiegman (above) will increase the number of people getting behind the team.
“Obviously, it helps if you are playing that way and you are putting on a show basically, like we did today,” she said.
“That’s so important. Like I have said before, Sarina really wants us to engage with the fans when we are here, but also the people at home watching on television. That’s the type of football, if I turned on my telly, I’d want to watch.
“Every game in football you go out to win and you want to play as best as you can, and today everything we touched in the first-half was golden.
“You have days like that, you also have days that aren’t like that. So we won’t get carried away with it, but I think for us in terms of confidence and what the girls all get out of today — especially the girls that are assisting and scoring — some of the goals were unbelievable.
“I was stood watching at the back and it was lovely for me.
“We came out here to win a game of football and we’ve done that, and we’ve done it in style.”
