Play the game not the occasion, they say, and England did that in the end, but one will live longer in the memory than the other. For though the manner of the solid but unspectacular 1-0 victory over an organised Austria side will not be committed to posterity, pretty much everything else about this opening game of the Women’s Euro ensured it was a special night.
Not that Georgia Stanway will recall some of the specifics, like the instructions her teammates were barking at her all evening, or what Sarina Wiegman said during the post-match team huddle out on the Old Trafford pitch. She heard none of that. The noise of a 68,871-strong crowd – the highest attendance in this tournament’s history – made that impossible.
