Lauren James scored after six minutes in her first Women’s World Cup start as European champions England beat Denmark 1-0 in a Group D encounter in Sydney, Friday.
Hurried into the fray during the game, Amalie Vangsgaard came close to equalizing the score in the last moments of regulation time, but her deflection of the head ended up on the post.
Thus, England held on and collected a second victory in as many outings and totaled six points in the standings. For Denmark, this is the first setback after their 1-0 victory against China last Saturday.
“It was a dream and something I thought about, but the most important thing is that I’m happy to have helped [the team] win,” said James, a star player at the Chelsea club. , in England.
“I had an idea in mind and as soon as the ball went into the net, I was relieved. »
James first collected the ball outside the penalty area. She then placed a curling right-footed shot out of reach for Danish keeper Lene Christensen.
It was the first goal for England, semi-finalists of the previous edition, on the move in more than seven hours of international soccer.
“This goal came too early for us,” Denmark coach Lars Sondergaard said.
“That threw us off a bit. We then played a little on the heels and England gained confidence thanks to this superb goal. »
England’s win, however, was clouded by a knee injury to midfielder Keira Walsh in the first half.
Walsh collapsed in the 35th minute clutching her right leg. She was carried off the field on a stretcher and made her way back to the players’ bench on crutches.
“Obviously I’m worried,” England manager Sarina Wiegman said.
“She wasn’t able to walk off the court. We don’t know yet [how serious the injury is]. Let’s wait. We had to find our bearings. We really dominated the first half and then Keira came out. »
Walsh was named player of the match in the 2022 European Championship final, which England won 2-1 against Germany. Recently, FC Barcelona acquired Walsh on a transfer from Manchester City for a women’s soccer record fee.
In the other Group D encounter on Friday outside Adelaide, China defeated Haiti 1-0 despite having to play with 10 players for more than an hour.
Striker Wang Shuang scored the first goal of her career at the World Cup. She converted a penalty in the 74th minute after video-assisted refereeing determined that a foul had been committed in the penalty area against Zhang Linyan.
For a few moments, the Haitians probably thought they would have a golden chance to tie the score on a penalty awarded to them at the start of stoppage time in the second half. However, the video assistance to the referee ruled that there was no fault.
This is only the second time in the Women’s World Cup that a team has won a game with 10 players on the field. A similar situation occurred in 2011.
After 28 minutes of uneventful play, the duel took on a whole new twist when Chinese midfielder Zhang Rui was shown a red card for a tackle on Sherly Jeudy.
Originally, Zhang was shown a yellow card but video refereeing assistance led to a change in decision.
The win sees China (1-1) join Denmark in second place in the Group D standings with three points. Despite two defeats in as many games, Haiti still has slim hopes of qualifying for the knockout phase.
England will complete the group stage by taking on China in Adelaide on Tuesday. For its part, Denmark will cross swords with Haiti in Perth.
