So it turns out Norway were right to call themselves “underdogs” ahead of this clash with England.
Initially such a statement by their boss Martin Sjogren had felt like mind games, especially given the attacking talent at their disposal, but England’s emphatic 8-0 win here in Brighton proved it was the truth.
Sarina Wiegman didn’t bite back on Sunday night when Sjogren made his comments and instead she let her side doing the talking - and my word did they.
By half-time it was already 6-0, but truth be told it could have been 10 such was the way England cut Norway open at will. They eventually finished on eight, which is a new record for the most goals scored by a team in either a men’s or women’s Euros game.
Stanway opened the scoring in the 12th minute with a penalty and in the proceeding 29 minutes the Lionesses bagged five more. Wiegman has wanted this side to be ruthless and against Norway they showed they can be.
Everyone was talking about Norway’s front-three, but it was England’s who ran riot in the first-half.
Beth Mead helped herself to two, as did Ellen White, and Lauren Hemp got in on the act as well during a stunning attacking performance.
Unsurprisingly following the break England took their foot off the gas, but Alessia Russo added a seventh and Mead completed her hat-trick nine minutes before the end.
England have secured themselves top spot in Group A with a game to spare and a quarter-final back here in Brighton, against most likely Germany or Spain awaits, but on this evidence Wiegman’s side will fear no one.
She had promised this would be an exciting and open game, largely due to Norway’s love of attacking football, and that proved to be the case.
England wanted to “entertain” too and they revelled in an open game that was played in scorching heat down by the coast in Brighton.
It was thought Wiegman would make changes for this match with Norway, particularly due to their strong attack, but instead she kept the same XI that beat Austria last week.
That meant Leah Williamson kept her place in the heart of defence and Stanway continued in midfield.
Stanway was full of running as ever and made no mistake from the spot when White went down after Maria Thorisdottir put an arm across her. It looked soft, but also clumsy, and VAR agreed.
From there, England never looked back. Most of their joy came out wide, with Mead and Hemp causing carnage down the flanks. Lucy Bronze gleefully joined in from right-back too.
Mead and Hemp combined for England’s second, which VAR awarded after the offside flag wrongly went up, and then White made it three before the half-hour mark after pinching the ball off Thorisdottir.
Mead and Hemp combined again for the fourth, with this time the latter turning provider. Shortly after Mead’s solo run made it five and, by the time White grabbed a second, the roof of the Amex was about to come off.
It was more of the same after the break, with Mead flashing a volley over the bar from a Hemp cross and White nodding a header just wide.
Mercifully for Norway, Wiegman made a triple change just before the hour mark and both Kirby and White were taken off to be wrapped in cotton wool.
The mercy, however, was short lived as 10 minutes after she came on Russo headed Bronze’s cross into the bottom corner.
By that point, Norway were begging for full-time - but England still had time to grab an eighth as Mead completed her hat-trick.
The Arsenal forward pounced on a rebound in the box to score with the simplest of finishes that rounded off a spectacular night for her and England.
