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:
