England beat Greece 3-1 in the first leg of their Women’s World Cup play-off, but failed to deliver the convincing performance they were hoping for against a highly unpredictable Greek side.
Georgia Stanway’s neat finish, Maya Le Tissier’s first England goal and Alessia Russo’s low strike were enough to put England in control, but Ioanna Papatheodorou’s goal for Greece meant the tie was far from over for Tuesday’s second leg.
Against Greece, who have never qualified for a major tournament and are ranked 59th in the world, England started as heavy favourites, but Sarina Wiegman was content with her side’s first-half performance. They dominated possession but often worked hard to break down Greece’s deep defensive formation with frequent moves. It would be a stretch to describe it as a bad performance, but at the same time, England lacked some of their usual zip, charisma and urgency, and their body language suggested they were concentrating on the task at hand rather than giving the impression they were enjoying themselves.
Maybe the flat atmosphere caused it. The Greek Football Federation made tickets for this match free, but even so, only a few thousand people gathered and there was almost no noise from the home fans. Instead, around 500 traveling England fans created most of the noise in an otherwise quiet, often echoey venue where players could often be heard instructing each other from the heights of the stands behind the athletics track.
It meant that apart from a few isolated moments, such as a delicious 25-yard chip from Lauren James, the first 45 minutes were largely forgettable and lacked real quality, which when it hit the net, the away fans applauded and thought England had taken the lead. A VAR check showed that James was offside.
England played with a back three when in possession, pushing Le Tissier far up the pitch as a right-back, and a back four when not in possession. With the exception of a big miss at 0-0 when Greece striker Papatheodorou hit the woodwork, they were very unsettled in defence. She edged past Esme Morgan and Leah Williamson with thrilling ease and her long-range strike beat Hannah Hampton but hit the bar.
England went close when Laura Blindkilde Brown fired a direct shot at the keeper, Lauren James curled a free-kick wide and Lauren Hemp fired a low shot from close range in front of goal before finally succeeding when Blindkilde played a quick ball to Brown Rousseau who allowed Stanway to bring the ball down with a good touch.
Beth Mead was introduced for Blindkilde Brown at half-time to make the European champions’ formation more attacking and they soon created further chances, Mead falling in the box as he was about to shoot and Le Tissier making a good save from Fafailia Petaloti. Minutes later Le Tissier had a strong finish after clever work by Keira Walsh to open up space.
England could only hope the floodgates were open when Russo fired into the bottom corner to make it 3-0 four minutes later. However, some lame defending allowed Rangers’ Kallisti Brouksair to pull a goal back, firing a low finish after a hopeful, bouncing, high long ball was initially not handled by Morgan.
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On a night when Erica Meg Parkinson and Grace Fisk made their senior international debuts, James came close to extending England’s tally as substitute Jess Park’s effort curled just wide and hit the bar.
Assuming they get the job done in the second leg in Leicester on Tuesday, England will face either Slovakia or Ukraine in the second round of the play-offs in the November-December international window. This tie will also be played over two legs and England need to win this one to secure their place at the big tournament in Brazil next summer.
Having won five of their six group stage matches, only beating Spain on superior goal difference, they can feel unlucky to be in this play-off. Wiegman’s side, runners-up at the 2023 World Cup, will be hoping to improve their chances of reaching the last three major finals and go one better than they lost to Spain in Sydney three years ago. However, in order to do that, they know they will need to improve their ball connection and fluidity significantly.