The Guardian's Women's Football Weekly - England roar into knockouts after 8-0 rout of Norway – Women’s Football Weekly

Episode Date: July 12, 2022

Faye Carruthers, Suzanne Wrack, Jonathan Liew and Ceylon Andi Hickman reflect on a historic 8-0 victory for England – with the help of Norwegian Lars Sivertsen. Plus all the fallout from Group D, and the end of the line for Northern Ireland

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England are the first team into the knockout stages of Euro 2022 as they smash Norway in a record-breaking 8-0 win. Rampant, ruthless, scintillating, super smashing. But Serena Wiegmann just describes it as great. Meanwhile, Beth Mead's hat trick turns Ian Wright into Grover from Sesame Street. All that plus there were some other games weren't there as well. Northern Ireland bow out of their first international tournament. Iceland and Belgium share the spoils in Group D. France say thank you very much to Italy after a 5-1 win. But anything France can do, England can do better.

Not that we're biased in any way, shape or form. All that plus we'll take your questions. And that's today's Guardian Women's Football Weekly. The Guardian Women's Football Weekly is supported by Visa, a proud sponsor of UEFA Women's Euro 2022. Visa knows competition is at its best when everyone truly has a chance to take part. Whether it's a player competing on a world stage or a small business taking control of their economic future, Visa recognises that we'll only see the best of all of us when everyone participates. Their technology and tools help entrepreneurs turn small ideas into big businesses, wherever they are.

Find out more at theguardian.com slash all hyphen win. Well, what a panel we have today. Susie Rack, what the bleep is going on was pretty much every single journo in the press boxes conversation at half time you were a very on guardian brand as well last night with your football weekly live t-shirt how did you enjoy that and how are you how have you slept i'm tired very very tired but yeah it was utterly surreal at half time we were sat next to all the players families and they were just all turning around each other going what the hell was going on what what's happening here what were we watching which was kind of funny and I think what everyone was

doing possibly the players in the changing room too I imagine but yeah great it was like a shrug emoji wasn't it um but I mean forget the eight nil it was all about the england versus norway media game what happened there let's have your synopsis uh well i mean i'm grateful to the lionesses for avenging our historic defeat um it was four nil to the norwegian team who took it incredibly seriously rocked up having trained under a top coach with two international women players in their side including one with I think like 180 plus caps who could have had a legitimate claim to be on the pitch last night and perhaps should have on the basis of the performance and at least one second division Norwegian men's player as well so I think

our 4-0 was a valiant defeat, given that we showed up with 10 players and had to borrow a Norwegian with a possible English grandma and had no subs and, you know, non-matching kit. And they showed up with full 23 all decked out in the new Norwegian shirt with abs absolutely everywhere before kickoff. And you're just thinking Jesus what are

we doing oh my goodness yeah that's why I don't play football uh Johnny Lou you were also at the game I saw you um I can't remember if it was at halftime or at full everything is a blur last night you're not at Ashbaston today which is a a bonus. I mean, that was quite spectacular. What else have you been up to? It was really weird during the England played Norway in the Euros and won 8-0. And I don't feel like that actually happened. You know, there were people in the stadium who, they hadn't quite processed it. Like the second half was really kind of triumphant.

You know, that's when the Mexican wave started going. But for most of that first half, when England were just racking up the gold, people were just racking up the gold people were just laughing like it was like they were watching some kind of experimental theatre piece and they weren't quite sure how to react like people's jaws were just dropping open and mine too it was truly truly one of the most remarkable games I think I've seen. Yeah it did feel like you were on a little bit of a trip. Salon Hickman, it's been a very long time.

I hope you're not on a trip. I hear you're on antibiotics. No, I am. I was all set to go down to Brighton last night to soak up the sun and the euphoria. But unfortunately, I am on antibiotics with an infected wisdom tooth. So I was watching.

I know, it's kind of the worst combo, isn't it? Wisdom tooth plus infection. But I was watching from the sofa and it was quite nice, actually. I wanted to be at every England game, but it is also a lovely experience to sit and take in all the coverage and everything that's going on around the game as well. So I did enjoy it. And it meant I got to hear Robin's wonderful BBC commentary,

which any dig Lord Sugar for me, I would have missed that. I was happy about that. I can't even pronounce the misspelt word that he used. Wasn't it symbolic spelt wrong? How did it sit? Sybmolic. That was what he said, didn't he? Symbolic females. Well, we have three symbolic females on this pod today. We have a man, very symbolic he is as well. The big question, obviously, last night was the whereabouts of the Norway team. It's still unknown. Would Lars Sivertsen show up this morning, we all wondered. The answer is yes, because you can hear him chuckling in the background.

And this is how you described it, Lars. Worst performance by Norwegians in this country since the last time you tried to walk down some stairs. What's the context of that? Well, I started my summer by falling down the stairs and breaking my lower leg in three places. So I've had a bit of a weird one this summer. And yeah, it was very underwhelming.

It's weird hearing all of you guys say, well, yeah, you all sat thinking this is unreal. You know, this can't be happening. I think that's kind of how we felt as well, mostly, but in a slightly different way. It was very strange to see. We'll get to the meat and potatoes in a minute. There were fears about the Norwegian defence going into the tournament.

And we all came away from sort of watching the game. We came away from the Northern Ireland game thinking that this didn't really give us any answers because we weren't tested in any way. And we still didn't really know what was going to happen against England but I don't think anyone expected that in terms of what was going to happen against England so that was that was quite horrifying. I don't think anybody expected it and get your knife and fork out we are going in for the meat and potatoes we've had a hard hitting message from Thomas on Twitter. One question, how good was that? I mean, I don't even know how you answer it. It was a record breaking night for England. The biggest win at a Euros by any English team, men's or women's. The biggest ever women's Euros win. Norway's record defeat. The highest half time score at a women's Euros. The list kind of goes on and on.

Now, I made this joke to the production team in the last pod when we were talking about record breakers, and I said, Roy Castle would be proud. However, nobody understood who Roy Castle was. I have a feeling that Johnny Lew and Lars Sivertsen understand what I mean. I hope other people do. I'll just leave the joke there and

feel old myself. Goals from Georgia Stanway, Lauren Hemp, Ellen White twice, Beth Mead three, Alessia Russo as well with her first goal in a major tournament. I mean, Susie, for people who might see this result as a cliched big scorelines in women's football moment moment can you try and put into context how unexpected this was I predicted Norway to win um I told someone at the FA just beforehand that Norway were going to win 2-1 so I definitely wasn't expecting it um Norway a really good team which is you know feels weird to say in the context of what we witnessed but defensively have been as Lars saying weak for a while I mean centre-back pairing Mara Mielda and Maria Forest-Dottier. Forest-Dottier plays for Man United now and she didn't have the best season in the world after being let go by

Chelsea the season before and you know when Emma Hayes moves on a player that they're not really up to it at the top anymore and Maramie Older has spent much of the past eight year and a half two years injured and then coming back from injury and then you know having niggles again and it hasn't really like played consistently for at least a season and a half if not two seasons so it's not the fastest, strongest or top levelist of centre-back pairings. And also I think that the, I don't know what happened to the full-backs. It seemed like they have no interest in having full-backs on the pitch, to be honest, which I thought was quite surreal. But yes, utterly bizarre because their midfield and their forward line are just so, so, so strong.

But they barely got hold of the ball so you know if you don't see the ball you can't do anything with it yeah surprising very surprising so actually I said on air just beforehand because I was sat in front of the Norway friends and family Julie Blackstead had 11 of her friends and family with t-shirts emblazoned with team Julie Blackstead and I kind of joked oh gosh could you imagine a team of 11 Julie Blacksteads and it almost felt well I mean could you imagine what the scoreline would have been if that had been the case um Johnny in your piece after the game you said the mood was giddy bordering on surreal bordering on delirious

what was it like at the Amex? I said to Peter Lansley, who was there for the Guardian, I said to him, I thought England, before the game, I wish I'd told more people. I said, I thought England would win quite comfortably.

I meant like 2-0 or something. I think I wrote something like, you know, it sort of, it moved the window of possibility. And we kind of knew that this England team had goals in them. We knew that, you know, they needed a statement performance.

We've seen flashes of really extreme competence from them where they just cut teams apart in 20 minutes. But to do it on this stage and what everyone, I think, thought was going to be their toughest group game and to be able to do it as comprehensively as they did i mean they didn't let norway have a have a sniffing goal you know so the the defense was absolutely solid mary earps had a great game uh walsh and stanway and goodfield just completely locked it down and then of course you have you have that front four which just can come at you from from so many angles it was like somebody had shouted free cake in the middle of the amethyst and everyone was you could see that you see like about 50 50 minutes the substitutes are queuing up at the side of the pitch they literally can't wait to come on and fill their booths it was almost kind of unsporting in a way not not in a sense that it was bad

you know it was unfair but it didn't feel remotely like a sporting contest from about 40 minutes on it felt like a kind of blood sport and and the crowd was still getting into it the crowd wanted seven they wanted eight they wanted ten then and you know England just just kept attacking you know the the intensity dropped a little bit in the second half but then the subs came on and and kept the energy up and it was literally the perfect the perfect performance and um Norway were truly terrible but this was this was I think more a case of England just breaking them open and then breaking their spirits and and not really giving them any any avenues out yeah they blocked themselves into a corner and road blocked and put a load of barriers up there by the time

they were in that corner. Solon, you said you were watching this from home and it was a different way to enjoy the game. So how did it come across on television? Because they kept showing shots of a very bemused looking Jonas Eidevald on the big screens at the ground. Almost what happened last night was the perfect translation of theory into practice. We went out there, we just hammered them, scored so many goals early. They capitulated, their front three didn't get on the ball and we won the game. But I don't think anyone could have predicted that it would have been by that margin, but it was almost beautiful. It was like every pundit before the game was being like, we just have to go out and score loads and shake it at the back and we can't let their front three get on the ball. And what did we do? We did exactly that, which is like Serena Wiegmann masterclass, but then to execute that and the players to go out and score loads, then shaky at the back, and we can't let their front three get on the ball. And what did we do? We did exactly that, which is like Serena Wiegmann masterclass, but then to

execute that and the players to go out and do that is all what we wanted to happen against Austria and what we've seen some flashes of in the warm-up games. So to actually just go out and execute it perfectly was, yeah, it was a beautiful feeling. But you do have to ask questions, I think, to understand what's going on over there well the man to answer those kind of questions is of course our Norwegian correspondent Lars Sivertsen and Lars on a scale of one to John Arnarisa how angry are you yeah he wasn't holding back was he at that time reading the sort of Norwegian media this morning I mean everyone seems to be pretty much turning their guns on the Swedish coach Martin Sjögren who of course is always specified after defeats

that he's Swedish I don't think I've ever seen him referred to as the Swedish coach Martin Sjögren quite as often as in the articles today obviously a lot of things go wrong when you're 6-0 down at halftime. And you know these are players who, yes, there are weaknesses and question marks in defense and all that, but there are players who are playing at a pretty high level for their club teams who just are made to look clueless. There's a sort of a collective failure there. But it's very strange when the coach is asked after the game,

you know, why didn't you change anything sooner? Because it's not just that England were tearing Norway apart, but they were creating more or less the same chance over and over again down Norway's left-hand side. And, you know, the space was there. It was the same space for 45 minutes, and just no alterations were made. And the coach is asked after full time time and they said, yeah, well, you can ask that, but we just decided to wait until halftime to change it,

which is like, what? Surely at, I mean, maybe not after 1-0, but after 4-0, you think, well, that is 10 minutes to halftime, but at 4-0 down, when England keep creating the exact same chance, using the exact same space, maybe you should adjust something a little bit. But it's like, you can't even talk about bad coaching because there's just a total absence of coaching,

which I think is very weird at this level. And I'm not saying this is necessarily easy to adjust as the game is progressing. But again, I repeat, they were allowing England to create the same chance over and over again. You've got to do something. And you mentioned young Julie Blackstone. I mean, she's a repurposed left winger, really, playing at left back.

She was 20 years old. You know, you can't really expect her to be one of the best defensive fullbacks in the world. But you know she's got a lot going for her going forward. She's a very talented young player. When you have a young player like that, at fullback who definitely needs protection defensively, you know, the players around her have to be aware of that. You saw time and time again on the Norwegian left-hand side when she went to press or pushed up,

you know, no one filled in any space behind her. There was like a huge, there was like an acre. You could play around a golf in the amount of grass that was sort of left behind her there. And neither the left centre half or the midfielder or anyone felt like dropping in to try to maybe mark some of the space it was very weird to see and uh just extraordinary scenes really i mean what has the reaction been like in norway because obviously back in 2017 they went out in the group stage as well having

lost all of their games but does this and the manner of the defeat almost feel worse? It feels ridiculous to say, but like the silver lining here is that they can still get out of the group. I mean, they could beat Austria, so, you know, they could be fine. But it's an interesting question after a game like that, whether you just say, well, that was a complete one off. Everything went wrong and just leave it behind you and try to move on or if you have to confront some more sort of serious issues and i think ada hegerberg who um you know couldn't really get the ball but at least she didn't stop running and she didn't kick off or anything she she was trying i said after the game that we have to allow ourselves to be angry which

I thought was interesting I think there needs to be a bit of a bit of a reckoning behind the scenes I mean it's a pretty much a straight shootout game uh between Norway and Austria now for that second spot in group A but they can't afford to draw it Norway because their goal difference has been decimated obviously they have to they have to win it how do you see them them going it's a really interesting matchup because I watched Austria versus England and I did think watching that game that as Norwegians we shouldn't sleep on Austria because I just thought they looked pretty solid at the back a lot of the focus in England was about how England weren't quite at the races in that game I just think

you've got to give Austria a bit of credit for for just being very competitive and solid and well organized and I that always worries me a little bit when you do have a team that has brilliant forwards which which we do they just couldn't get the ball yesterday but there are question marks at the back you know if we can't get through their defence, we are very vulnerable the other way. Even if our players are better on paper and significantly better on paper, I absolutely don't think we can take that game for granted at all. Well, I'm sure we'll speak to you, Lars,

after that final group game. And thank you for joining us this morning. I'm sorry for the massive lionesses loving. We'll spare you the rest of it. But listen, go well. No, you've deserved it. They were absolutely fantastic. But as you guys have said, it's quite strange to watch a game

where you're right. This was the recipe for England. This is how you play to beat Norway. And we were neither ready for it nor adjusted to it at any point. It's a surreal thing to watch. That recipe made the cake that Johnny Liu was referring to

and they were all going for. Thank you, Lars. Listen, look after yourself as well. Get better soon. And thank you for making us your comeback pod. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.

Bye. Lars Sivertsen, what a legend. Right, getting into the game itself. Salon, we haven't even spoken really about the penalty it was a little bit soft I think would be fair to say although when I suggested that to Ellen White she massively disagreed and said there was uh contact but maybe a little unlucky Norway not to have that overturned by VAR yeah shocking that Ellen White massively disagreed. Really, really turn up for the book there.

Yeah, you'd be absolutely fuming if you're the defender and that was given against you. It was soft. It did look like she was going down anyway, lent into it. But also, she's a striker in the box and any bit of contact you have to be so careful about if you're a defender. So you can see them giving and you can see them not giving as a football cliche for you there but there was debate after whether

the penalty was a seminal moment and would have changed the game either way I think if you score eight goals in a game you're probably on track to score a few with or without a penalty opening them up or not so yeah I think you can argue it but it kind of slips into the background a little bit for me whether or not it is but yeah definitely was a soft one. Johnny Lars mentioned there about Julie Blackstead and that they were just repeating the same mistake over and over again but it was a really strange system that they were playing but Beth Mead was at the same time completely unplayable. And I mentioned in the intro, Ian Wright and his Grover impression from Sesame Street.

That gif kind of explains everything when Beth scored the hat trick. But she is just getting better and better. But the second goal in particular was just absolutely beautiful to watch. Yeah, I mean, the control and the composure. I mean, when you're in a period of play like that where everything seems to be going right for you, it can often seem like, you know, you almost want to rush things, snatch up things.

You want to take pot shots and to have the presence of mind to not just take the ball into a dangerous position, but to actually slow the game down a little bit, take a touch, send the defender the wrong way and find that it was like a reverse finish with her left foot into the same corner. I think that kind of shows where her head's at at the moment. And that right flank was a source of so much productivity

and creativity for England. I do feel sorry for Blackstaff in a way, because like Lars said, she's not a defender by trade. And frankly, she could have used a little bit more help. But the way that Lucy Bronze manages to come forward with the ball and because of the way that Mead occupies the defender, you don't really know whether you're supposed to step up when bronze comes forward with the ball. You don't know whether you're supposed to stay with Meade. And that's literally the point at which somebody's got to come across,

perhaps, or cover from midfield. And there was nothing there. But yeah, I mean, Meade, I think, was my tip for the golden boot before I've just got to drop that in there and uh hang on a minute excuse me Johnny Lou so you've now said that you said that it was going to be a comfortable England win but you didn't tell anybody I don't remember in the last pod you tipping Beth Mead for the golden boot either it was in the newspaper it was in the I think he just said it to himself I wrote it down on a piece of paper, which I'm

going to produce in about 10, 20 seconds. Susie, England were singing Sweet Caroline, Freed from Desire as they walked around the group yesterday. As I walked down the tunnel into the media room, past the England dressing dressing room I heard them blaring out river deep mountain high karaoke tunes left right and center they were having a ball inside the dressing room they're obviously a really close group you know I'm around them a lot as are you and that picture of Leah Williamson kissing Beth Mead's head was just lovely. But throughout the game, Serena Wiegman was telling them still to keep calm and her post-match press conference and interviews. It was very much, you know, don't get too carried away. How do you balance that, you know, between celebrating what is a phenomenal victory, but knowing that you've still got a long way to go.

Yes, Serena tried out the greatest of cliches. We've not won anything yet. And it's true. But I mean, you do have to enjoy a win of that manner where you just play such complete football, particularly that forward line of Hegerberg, Gureiton and Caroline Graham-Hanson. They're three of the best players in the world, right?

They're so phenomenally good. For Lyon, the Champions League winning record goal scorer, you've got Caroline Graham-Hansen who has been absolutely electric for Barcelona. And you've got Guraytan who's been brilliant for Champions Chelsea in the Women's Super League. And they're just very, very, very good. And they didn't see the ball.

You have to enjoy that moment a little bit. But yeah, there is this real balance to their sort of off pitch like intensity and their on pitch intensity. And we saw it a little bit out in Switzerland where, you know, they had this incredibly in sort of 30 degree heat blistering training session. And then off the pitch in a similar fashion to the way you described then, they were like music blaring, dancing, Jill Scott on the table, dancing to Grease Lightning whilst they all sang and clapped around it. And like just a real relaxed vibe.

And yeah, I think it is a very Serena Wiegmann thing to try and get her team to do I spoke to her and she was basically said that she reflects on her time as a player and realized that she didn't enjoy it at times as much as she should have done and that she wishes she just had more fun with it and that is sort of why she um constantly wanting her players to relax, enjoy it, take it in, have fun. But then also, you know, kind of had this incredible intensity of their game. She wants them to actually reflect on their playing careers when they're done and realise that they had a great time. And as you saw last night and as I saw in Switzerland, they really are. If you want to get the best out of a group of people who are working towards the same outcome building the relationships and building the culture in that squad is

absolutely paramount I think what Serena's done is seen a squad full of talent of players who are playing at the top of their games and are playing in different teams against each other every weekend and then she's gone right how do I bring this group of players together you've already got such strong relationships within the squad and it's how you create that sense of group purpose and I think that's exactly what we're seeing with this team which we haven't seen perhaps for a long time but Faye just to your earlier point I also think we need to speak to the UEFA whoever's whoever's doing the UEFA DJing at these stadiums, because for the second time, it's been the same songs that are played at 90 minutes.

It's a standard repertoire now. I've got Do A Leap Or One Kiss. Then it goes into Freed From Desire and Sweet Caroline. And at halftime, they play As It Was, Harry Styles. I'm wondering in the next stages, will we get a more diverse playlist? Because I feel like there's more that they can give us. Well, listen, I have a pitch side pass. So I will make my way to the DJ box and I will put in some

requests. So all of you can send them in when I tweet out the any questions and all the panellists can pick their best and I shall certainly put in the requests. But I cannot guarantee, bearing in mind it's a UEFA competition, that any of them will be taken on board and we will be completely ignored, I'm sure. Last question before we've got to go on this game, because if you're not an England fan, quite frankly, this last however long we've waffled on for will be incredibly boring. Were there any negatives at all, Johnny Liu? Anything? I mean, I don't think so. I don't, I mean, it would literally be trying to, trying to contrive something.

There's definitely an element of danger there in the way that they won. And in that respect, I think the Northern Ireland game will be quite a nice little palate cleanser for them because I don't think they're going to win that 8-0. And it will almost kind of it will allow them to do a slightly professional workman like job and and maybe kind of you know level their heads a little bit especially if Northern Ireland you know run them close I think you know that the concern is more whether they can produce that later in the tournament and I don't want to don't want to use cliches like peaking too soon

or anything like that, but the pressure that they're going to face in a big semi-final or in the final, hopefully if they get there, is going to be of a magnitude that is so much higher and so much more intense. The tactical problems they're going to face are of a different magnitude

to what Norway are going to pose them. So great as this was for for kind of putting football and putting this tournament on the map and getting people behind this team they really I think also need to kind of manage that expectation because it's going to go haywire after this and there are much tougher tests to come. Yep there certainly are are. But Group A is looking good. England topping it, six points, goal difference of nine. Austria in second, Norway third, and Northern Ireland out of the tournament.

And that is it for part one. In part two, we'll talk about Northern Ireland versus Austria, as well as that stunning start that France made to life in Group D. As you know, this podcast is supported by Visa. And so we wanted to take a few minutes to showcase how, as well as being a proud sponsor of UEFA Women's Euro 2022, they're financially supporting global initiatives that will help grow women's football at all levels. This includes football camps for kids, like the one that Swiss international and PSG forward Ramona Backman helped to organise with

help from Visa. Ramona, lovely to see you. You're taking part in what sounds like an incredible kids camp. You did one last year. You've got another one coming up as well. Just tell us what it's like and how did it come about? This has been an idea which I've been playing with for a long time. And yeah, finally last year we started with the first one. So we had two in Switzerland and this year it's going to be the third one. How does it work? What do you do with them? The camps are usually two days.

So there's a lot of training involved. I'm giving them some tips, some tricks. So yeah, it's a great time. And it also gives me a lot of back because I can tell in their faces how happy they are and that they really enjoy it. And it makes me happy too. One of the biggest names in the game at the moment. How much responsibility do you feel in terms of having to help the next generation of superstar players? I feel like with Visa supporting and investing a lot in women's football too, I just think it's really important to give something back. And also to give, especially the girls and the boys, different kind of role models. Because when I was young, I didn't really know that there was any professional women's footballers, which is different now. So I know I have a lot of young girls, but also a lot of young boys that are following me and have me as their role model. And yeah, this is really cool. It's important to give something back to the younger generation. All the experience I have, I think they can learn a lot.

What a fantastic role model you are. Ramona, thank you so much for your time and best of luck with the tournament as well. Thank you very much. Now it's back to the show. Welcome back to part two of the Guardian Women's Football Weekly. So there was another game in Group A. Austria faced Northern Ireland as the early kick-off.

A goal from Katarina Schichtel from a set-piece gave Austria a first-half lead, whilst Katarina Naschenweng scored late on to secure the victory. The main highlight, though, of this fixture has to be Sarah Zadrazil playing for about 30 seconds with only one boot on while holding the other one in her hand, which was some sight, that's for sure. Tough one to take maybe for Northern Ireland, Susie. They exit the group following defeats to both Austria and Norway.

How do you think that they're going to reflect on their time in the tournament? Yeah, I mean, they'll be disappointed naturally. You know, it's never nice to go out of a major tournament particularly your first but they got here and they scored although that looks less impressive now we know how easy it is to put goals past Norway so any team is going to be disappointed but it feels slightly patronizing to say that yeah they did a great job in in making it this far but they sort of did and it was very unexpected that they made it into the Euros in the first place and you know it was tough to play that

game without Simone McGill who was injured um you know you had to have the captain playing in force nine instead and it's not been the most straightforward of journey for them and I thought they did all right against Austria. They weren't terrible, you know, kind of few defensive errors for the two goals. But beyond that, they sort of held their own a little bit and had a couple of chances, which, you know, is better than maybe Norway can say last night. So it's going to be interesting to see the final game. You know, we might see quite a few changes to England's starting line-up

and quite a lot of substitutions potentially because of them having already topped the group. So there's an opportunity there for Northern Ireland to sort of puncture the party a little bit and disrupt the momentum. Although you saw with England last night when the subs come on, it's almost seamless, the transition between players coming in and going out. So yeah, it'll be a tough, tough job. but if they could take something out of the England game then

I think they'd call this tournament a raging success. Yeah how are they going to approach this game Salon because you know they've obviously already made history they're not going to want a scoreline as we saw last night against Norway. Are the shackles going to be off or is there going to be a fear factor at the same time? I'm not sure if there'll be a fear factor. I think when you go into a game, when you know the outcome or the stakes of the game and they're kind of immovable, I think you play with a freedom that makes you take more risks or makes you not get in your head as much potentially and I think they did look good in spells last night I think they had some breaks quite early on in the first half but it was almost like a lack of expectations they didn't necessarily move up

as a unit it was kind of just one player roaming caught a break and then looked around and had no one with them and I think if you're going into a game on Friday against England and you know that whatever happens in the outcome of this game doesn't really necessarily matter for you you probably will take those extra chances and you will take those extra risks you will get forward and if you get a break you'll probably see a few more players going up and joining in so yeah hopefully we get a good game no one wants a whitewash score although we weren't too fussed last night when it happened against Norway. But yeah, as Susie said, there'll be a lot of rotation in the England team, hopefully give some more inexperienced players in a national tournament the chance to go out there. So if I was Northern Ireland, I'd be pretty up for it, I think, on Friday. I'm not sure about the rotation, you know. Serena Wiegmann likes to have a settled side and because we go straight into the quarterfinals, I think she's going to want a little bit of momentum

and I think we'll see the core group of players that she started in the first two games start again against Northern Ireland, but maybe we'll see earlier substitutions than 60 minutes, perhaps, which seems to be her new favourite time to bring on three players. Austria do have a great chance, though, of getting out of this group, Johnny.

They were semi-finalists back in 2017, but the last time they met Norway was the year before that. They drew one match, lost the other with them. But obviously, Norway's goal difference changes things. They'll be quite confident, won't they? Yeah, I mean, somebody made the good point that uh i can't remember who it was in one of the newspapers that there was because there were so many kind of unknown quantities in this tournament in terms of match-ups you know obviously we had the pandemic we've had so many sides at different different stages of their development and and clearly austria

are they're they're a well-organized side we saw that against england they have a set piece threat we saw that against northern ireland and again-piece threat. We saw that against Northern Ireland. And again, it's going to be a totally different sort of game for both of them. You kind of wonder whether Norway are psychologically going to be ready for that game. Austria only need a point. And whether Norway kind of...

I mean, that's the sort of game that really traumatises a whole squad and it's, you know, it's easy to say, you know, we'll bounce back,

it was just one result but we're going over that game, they'll probably analyse that today, they'll go through the goals, I can't imagine, you know, that we won't see a few changes

and there will never be a better time for Austria to play Norway. They probably can't believe their luck. And, you know, they're very well organised. You know, we all know what Satra still can do. I mean, I was on the train for the game, but I saw the highlights and I thought Barbara Dunst was very impressive. They clearly have players to hurt Norway. And as we now know, they can be hurt quite grievously. Indeed, as can Italy, because let's cast our minds back to Monday night

when France was still the team who'd put in the most impressive performance at the tournament. It finished France 5, Italy 1. Best game played in Rotherham since, insert your random match here, a hat-trick from Grace Gioroioro goals from Marie Antoinette Cototo and Delphine Cascarino before Martina Piemont scored a late consolation Johnny your tweet made me laugh imagine how good France would be if they liked each other yeah I mean it was slightly facetious really because I mean we all talked about kind of the discord and the unrest in the French camp ahead of the tournament.

And, you know, Diakra's selection, maybe that gets overplayed slightly. Maybe, you know, it's kind of a narrative that people run with, but they seem like a happy enough side. They seem like a happy enough unit. You know, if you look on their social media, they're all smiling. They're all having a great time so all seems well for now I mean I was I was actually really surprised at um how porous how bad Italy were I mean so many of those goals were basically really really quite simple uh you know crosses into the box second balls rebounds you know defenders basically not clearing their lines I guess the exception being

Cascarino's hit I think it was the second goal where she curled it from about 20 yards that was exceptional but Italy I think could take a little bit

of heart from how they played in the second half obviously they pulled a goal back their captain was quite fortunate to escape a red

but it's quite clear there is still a gulf between those two sides and Italy will look at those last two group games and will be, I think, encouraged by the draw in the other game and still feel that they can progress. Yeah, elsewhere in Group D, Belgium and Iceland played out a one-all draw at Manchester City's Academy Stadium, which means it's finally poised

going into Thursday's second games. Bit of a sliding doors moment, Susie, in the first half, perhaps for Italy, when Barbara Bonancia missed the one-on-one with Pauline Peyroman-Yin. What would the game have been like if she'd scored that one? It's impossible to say, isn't it? I mean, for me, the big problems for Italy were at the back after collapse defensively, which is a big surprise because at the World Cup, which was when they sort of really impressed, it was their defensive stability that was so satisfying to watch.

And then they built through Bonascia and she was great. It's hard to say whether anything would be significantly different in the same way that it's impossible to say whether, if England's penalty hadn't been given, things would be significantly different in the same way that it's impossible to say whether if you know england's penalty hadn't been given things would have been different yeah france were just so ruthless that it's it's really difficult to to say that it would have gone any other way i was really disappointed in it because they were my dark horses for the tournament after their impressive world cup and now every single prediction I've had is looking like absolute dogs. So yeah, that's fun.

You need to take lessons from Johnny Liu. All of his predictions are bang on. It's just no one's heard them. I did pick Beth Mead for Golden Boot, to be fair. I was saying Beth Mead for Golden Boot for months. In fact, I even asked her after she scored that first goal very, very jokingly against Austria. So your top scorer is the golden boot on the line and got a good laugh from her in the mix zone afterwards. So yeah, I'm taking Beth Mead for my own.

Well, listen, five goals in the first half of France, including a hat trick for Grace Gaioro, as I said. Don't tell Beth Me Beth Mead though the first woman ever to do that in the first half of a Euro is a really good way to mark her 50th cap but Salon what point did Omandine Henry and Eugène Le Sommet decide to turn off their televisions? Probably at half time I'd say yeah if you're sat at home watching that one, you really should be in that squad. It's scary thinking about that French team with the inclusion of those two. The fact that they're at home obviously points to crazy problems within the managerial system and the setup. But yeah, as Johnny said, looking at them on Sunday night, you would not have thought that at all. I thought as well, we should probably talk about the red card slash not red card. I don't know what it takes to get a red card in women's football. I think

there were lots of tweets going around. But yeah, I think she did catch her in the face with her knee. I'm interested as to why VAR overturned that decision. Very strange indeed. But as we know, VAR is a very strange beast it's the Thursday second games in group D Italy face Iceland and France take on Belgium we'll round those up later on in the week but it's been an absolute pleasure we'll be back on Friday to check in on the second set of fixtures in groups B C and D including the big meeting between Germany and Spain. Susie, you're back down to earth with the school run?

Yeah, I'm not looking forward to it. I'm going to have to go and get some socks on the kids who's got a broken arm and can't do it himself. Oh gosh. Well, I'm loving the back to front baseball cap.

You are rocking that mum look to go down to the school gates. It's the bad hair. It's the bad hair. I'm not even going to discuss my hair. It's why my video is off. Johnny Liu, always a pleasure. You make me smile,

particularly on a Tuesday morning after an 8-0 win, even more so. Go back to bed. It's too hot now. It's already sweltering. I've got the fan on. It's too late. Too late.

That ship sailed. Game over. Sal over salon look after yourself um i hope that wisdom tooth comes through soon and sorts itself out thank you faye i'm hoping it'll be right and ready for uh for friday's game and onwards excellent friday what can we expect from england we shall see we'll be back on friday to check in on the second set of fixtures in those other groups, as I say, including that massive meeting between Germany and Spain, which may point towards who England will face in the quarterfinals. The Guardian's Women's Football Weekly is produced by Lucy Oliver and Jessie Parker Humphries, with additional help from Silas Gray and George Cooper.

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