By: Derek Sun
After beating Northern Ireland 5-0 in the Euro 2022 women’s football tournament, England will now go into the quarterfinals, all without having a goal scored on them! In the game against Ireland, they went 40 minutes without a goal scored for either side, until England’s Francesca “Fran” Kirby broke the stalemate with a shot into the upper corner.
Substitute player Alessia Russo racked up an extraordinary 2 goals in just 5 minutes after the half-time break, and a goal from Northern Ireland’s Kelsie Burrows let England reach 5 goals by the end of the game.
Northern Ireland is competing in its first women’s major tournament, finishing without a win. England will either play Spain or Denmark as they soar into the quarterfinals. England’s world ranking in women’s soccer is currently No. 8. England’s manager, Sarina Wiegman, will not come to England’s quarter-finals match following her testing positive for COVID. “I’m very hopeful. But we’ll see what happens. And we do know if I can’t be there. I’ll be around in another way,” Wiegman said at an online news conference on Tuesday.
This is the 13th edition of the Euro 2022, with England being the host country. England automatically qualified for the tournament because they were the hosts. The original tournament was set nearly 2 years ago, on November 6, 2020, but was delayed due to COVID.
Russia originally qualified but was suspended due to their invasion of Ukraine in February. Portugal was chosen to take their place since Russia had defeated them in the play-offs. The tournament will be staged in 10 stadiums across England with the biggest stadium able to hold around 90,000 people!
Of the 47 countries eligible for the tournament, 16 nations qualified. These nations include England, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Belgium, Iceland, Spain, Finland, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Northern Ireland, and Portugal.
The Netherlands are the defending champions, but Germany holds a record 8 titles. As of July 21, 2022, there have been 26 matches played and 83 goals scored, which is an average of 3.19 goals per game. There has also been 414,323 people that attended, an average of about 15,936 people per match.
Sources: https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1658073553510x685381632006305500/Euro%202022_%20England%20top%20group%20in%20style%20after%20beating%20Northern%20Ireland%205-0%20-%20CBBC%20Newsround.pdf