Beth Mead has prospered since the appointment of Sarina Wiegman and, after scoring the first goal of UEFA Women’s Euro 2022, she is now one of the favourites to win the Golden Boot.
England won the opening game of the tournament on Wednesday evening in front of a record-breaking crowd at Old Trafford thanks to the Arsenal forward’s lob, which just managed to creep over the line.
Mead has now scored 15 goals and is the top scorer for the Lionesses under Wiegman but, despite this scintillating form, her focus is not on being involved in the Golden Boot race.
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She admitted: “It’s not something I've thought about. There are some incredible scorers in this competition and I just want to enjoy my football. The goals, assists, or whatever it may be will come.”
The Lionesses got off to the dream start, albeit not at their usual potent goalscoring form, and Mead was delighted to have the win under their belt.
“[It was] a big win. Like we said, sometimes you can’t always win pretty, and it wasn't our best performance,” she said. “But we go to the training pitch, and we learn from it, and it’s still a big win that we may not have got in the past.”
A record Women’s Euro attendance of 68,871 fans turned out at Old Trafford to watch the Lionesses open the tournament, and the fans certainly proved beneficial for the team.
“A record crowd, a great evening, hopefully, it continues to be like that,” Mead said. “I thought the crowd were amazing and definitely the 12th man that we needed.”
With the stands full and the pressure of playing in the opening game of the tournaments on their shoulders, Mead spoke of the Lionesses’ nerves ahead of the match.
“I think it was the occasion, a little bit of expectation but as soon as I was on the pitch, I was fine. It’s a long wait sometimes when it’s an 8pm kick-off, so you kind of get in your own head a little bit. But no, I loved every minute,” she explained.
Wiegman’s side grew into the game after a nervy first quarter of an hour. Mead then netted on 16 minutes and the Arsenal forward felt that the players were relieved to get the first goal.
She said: “It’s always nice to get the first goal and settle yourself in the game. I think it was pretty good timing for us, I don’t know what time in the game it was, but I know it was fairly early and it’s nice to settle our nerves with that.”
With Mead off the mark already and the hurdle of starting the tournament with a win cleared, both the Arsenal forward and the Lionesses will be looking forward to getting back out on the pitch when they travel to Brighton to face Norway on Monday evening.
