England vs Northern Ireland LIVE: Euro 2022 result and final score as Alessia Russo adds to Beth Mead goal
Alessia Russo made an instant impact from the bench as her quickfire double added to first-half goals from Fran Kirby and Beth Mead
England made it three wins out of three at Euro 2022 as the tournament hosts defeated Northern Ireland 5-0 at St Mary’s Stadium.
Having already qualified for the quarter-finals as group winners, England named an unchanged team for the third match in a row but Northern Ireland defended well in the opening stages to frustrate the Lionesses.
Northern Ireland were already unable to progress to the knockout stages but it took until Fran Kirby’s excellent strike on 40 minutes for England to take the lead, and it was swiftly followed by Beth Mead’s fifth goal of the tournament.
England made three changes at half time but it was Alessia Russo who made the biggest impact, scoring a header and then adding a quick second after a sublime turn and finish.
With England manager Sarina Wiegman unavailable for the match after testing positive for Covid-19, the Lionesses made it five late on after Northern Ireland defender Kelsie Burrows turned Mead’s cross into her own net.
England will now look forward to a quarter-final against either Spain or Denmark next Wednesday. Follow live reaction from St Mary’s, below:
England 0-0 Northern Ireland
19 mins: Hemp drifts over to the right and almost plays in Stanway with a lovely reverse pass. Burns is out smartly and Northern Ireland make it to 20 minutes unscathed.
England 0-0 Northern Ireland
16 mins: Close! Northern Ireland get first contact at the corner but can’t clear. It drops to Mead, but McKenna makes a crucial block on the line!
Northern Ireland eventually scramble clear after some frantic defending.
England 0-0 Northern Ireland
14 mins: Another nice move from England and sharp link-up between Mead and Stanway down the right. Northern Ireland, who have started well, can scramble clear for the corner.
England 0-0 Northern Ireland
11 mins: England have firm control of the possession now, and once again the right hand side looks the most threatening avenue. Stanway is picking up a couple of nice positions and tests Burns with a shot towards the near post.
England 0-0 Northern Ireland - NO PENALTY!
8 mins: The right decision. Rafferty’s hands were by her side and the shot from Stanway was from close range. The ball also hit Mead’s hand in the build up.
England 0-0 Northern Ireland - PENALTY!
5 mins: Stanway’s shot is blocked by Rafferty in the box, and the referee points to the spot for handball!
England 0-0 Northern Ireland
4 mins: Maybe a slight concern that England made another slow start, even if was unpunished. The Lionesses make their first attack down the right, with goalkeeper Burns punching Bronze’s cross clear.
Kick-off! England 0-0 Northern Ireland
We’re underway at St Mary’s!
And an early chance for Northern Ireland! Wade gets down the outside of the England defence and forces Earps into a save!
Euro 2022: England vs Northern Ireland
Time for the anthems, or anthem I should say as we get a single rendition of ‘God Save The Queen’.
There are plenty of Northern Ireland fans at St Mary’s and it sets up a cracking atmosphere ahead of kick-off.
Euro 2022: England vs Northern Ireland
And before the game, Veurink spoke to BBC Sport: “We have confidence in keeping rhythm for players - if you look to the last game and then the quarter-final game it’s a big gap, nine days in between so that’s the reason we’ve kept the same players.
“We were all disappointed [with Wiegman’s positive test] but at the end we all know the world we live in at the moment and we knew it could happen. We spoke a lot about lots of scenarios and this was one of them. But we have to go on, we have to move on and that was also the message from Sarina today to the players and the staff.”
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