It was not pretty for the reigning European champions as they scraped past a valiant Haiti outfit 1-0 on Saturday night at Suncorp Stadium in their FIFA Women’s World Cup opener.
The heavy favourites tag for their opponents did not deter Nicolas Delepine’s Haiti as they provided ample for England to think about throughout the match.
From the opening moments, the exuberant Haiti showed their threat on the break with Melchie Dumornay and Dayan Pierre leading the way as opportunities trickled through for the team.
Lionesses’ winger Lauren Hemp explained there were no surprises in the debutantes’ tactics stating that England had to take lessons from their tough first game.
“There is a lot to learn from going into the next game,” Hemp said.
“We knew they’d be dangerous on the counter-attack and that’s what they were tonight. We need to be more ruthless.”
The first half was marred by extensive VAR intervention which saw referee Emikar Caldera sent to the monitor twice. After going against the VAR’s first recommendation for a penalty early on, she could not be so lenient for a blatant handball in the box around half an hour in.
Georgia Stanway’s effort was originally batted away by opposition goalkeeper Kerly Theus, but another VAR review required the kick to be retaken. Stanway made no mistake on her second attempt finding the bottom-left corner as Theus dived the other way.
Plentiful possession proved little ally for the Lionesses’ as they struggled to put the finishing touches and blow out the score with Haiti doing their best to remain resilient. Goalkeeper Theus was immense for Haiti, consistently producing superb stops to keep her team in the match.
The heart-in-mouth moment for the English came with nine minutes to play as the game almost unravelled before them. Haiti substitute Roseline Eloissaint wriggled her way into a great position in the area, but England shot-stopper Mary Earps pulled off a vital save to help secure the points.
With doubtless tougher challenges ahead for the highly fancied England, coach Sarina Weigman was seeking greater conviction from her team. Weigman said she was expecting a similarly disciplined and deep sitting showing from Denmark on Friday night.
“We need to keep the ball moving quicker and have less touches,” Weigman said.
“We had lots of crosses and we need to get a little more quality from the crosses to make the chances of scoring even higher.”
Despite the underwhelming scoreline, it was an important three points for England to get them off to the best possible start in the tournament. Grappling with the loss of several key players for this World Cup, a first victory offers some momentum heading into the Denmark fixture.
Feature image credit: The FA via Getty Images
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