England will take a 3-1 first-leg lead into the second instalment of their Women’s World Cup qualifying play-off against Greece after winning in Heraklion, Crete, on Friday night. The sides meet again on Tuesday in Leicester (19:30 BST), and the winner of the tie will face Ukraine or Slovakia in round two for a place at next year’s tournament in Brazil.
Sarina Wiegman’s side are on an unfamiliar route to a major tournament, having finished runners-up to world champions Spain in their qualifying group. The Lionesses, back-to-back European champions, are not used to navigating play-offs, and the win in Crete was just their third in their past eight competitive away games.
Lucy Bronze’s withdrawal from the squad with a minor injury earlier in the week handed a rare opportunity to Manchester United captain Maya le Tissier. A key player for her club, Le Tissier has struggled to break into the England team with Bronze understandably difficult to displace. Wiegman views her as a right-back rather than the centre-back she plays at United, and she was handed a start against Greece. Making her 15th cap, she was a standout performer and was rewarded with her first international goal in the 63rd minute.
“As soon as we were in possession, she was higher on the pitch and she already came close to a couple of moments with crosses,” Wiegman said. “I’m very happy for her and for the whole team because that was an important goal.”
The scoreline was pleasing, but Wiegman admitted frustration at not keeping a clean sheet given the gulf in class. There were familiar lapses in concentration defensively that let Greece pounce: Ioanna Papatheodorou struck the crossbar in the first half before teeing up Kallisti Brouksair for the goal. Those chances came from England errors, and the failure to shut the game out means the door remains open for Greece in the second leg.
“That’s up to us. We have to show up on Tuesday, play a good game and then we should be better than Greece,” Wiegman said. “Of course we want to take some more distance [in the scoreline], that’s absolutely true, but at the same time we won and that’s the most important thing. Sometimes we played really well and sometimes we were a bit sloppy. We were a bit frustrated as we wanted to do that better. We want to show more than winning, we want to play really well too.”
With victory secure, Wiegman was able to hand a debut to 18-year-old Erica Meg Parkinson, who came on in the 85th minute, as well as to Liverpool captain Grace Fisk. Fisk, 28, had waited more than six years for her first cap, having received her first England call-up in 2020, while Parkinson has broken through at pace this season. The teenager was unexpectedly named in Wiegman’s squad in March, having only moved up to England’s Under-23s a few months earlier, and she joined North Carolina Courage from Portuguese side Valadares Gaia this summer. Defender Esme Morgan said of her: “She’s a really intelligent player. She has incredibly good movement and timing, picking up pockets for players to find her. She’s really comfortable receiving [the ball] in tight spaces, she’s strong holding off players, very aggressive in her tackling and wins back a lot of balls.”
Parkinson’s introduction added to the debate over Wiegman’s preferred number 10. Chelsea forward Lauren James was given a creative, free role against Greece and showed flashes of quality, nonchalantly lobbing goalkeeper Fafailia Petaloti from 30 yards only for the effort to be ruled out for offside. Manchester City’s Grace Clinton and Manchester United’s Ella Toone were both recalled to the squad to cover injuries, with Aston Villa’s Lucia Kendall among those to drop out, while Laura Blindkilde Brown started in that position alongside James. Beth Mead and Jess Park have also played there. “I see there is a lot of competition in that position, where we have a lot of options with different players, who have different qualities,” Wiegman said. “You can call it a question mark but I call it many options. Today we had two 10s and sometimes three.”
England’s task was carried out in strange circumstances, with local media questioning why the match was not played in Greece’s capital, Athens. Fewer than 4,000 fans attended the 26,000-capacity stadium in Heraklion, creating an eerie atmosphere. Georgia Stanway, England’s top scorer this year, again delivered when her side needed her, opening the scoring after a neat, incisive passing move in a frustrating first half — the spark England required after they lacked ruthlessness and failed to capitalise on their dominance. “I think we made it a bit harder. Greece were well prepared and disciplined. We struggled when they tried to press us,” Wiegman added. “We could have scored more than the three goals. There are lots of things to take. I have seen some fluid moments but I want more. The final ball, final cross and the positions can be better.”