KING POWER – These kinds of mismatches in the women’s game used to be filed under “scenes nobody likes to see”.
Effervescent England blew away a Greek side dreaming of their first major tournament with five goals and 8-1 on aggregate. With one qualifying play-off to go, the Lionesses finally look like potential 2027 World Cup champions.
If the away leg was tepid, this was a tempest, inspired by Alessia Russo, Lauren James and Georgia Stanway. Russo seized upon James’ through ball inside three minutes before the Chelsea forward capitalised on Maya Le Tissier’s brilliant run to double the lead.
A word too for Lauren Hemp, who carved Greece open down the left for the third and fourth, teeing up a Stanway header and then an unmarked, in-sliding James. Russo’s second finish came late, but England might have had seven or eight by then.
Early in her reign, Sarina Wiegman used to complain of these see-saw qualifiers; the more her team ran up the score, the less she could learn. There was at least a chance to experiment, with Lexi Potter and Freya Godfrey handed their debuts.
But with so many of the League A runners-up brushing aside minnows last night, the question has to be asked why Uefa have rejigged World Cup qualifying to make it so brutally unfair on teams like Greece. Why could the runners-up from the top-seeded groups (England among them) not just qualify automatically? Instead, some of the world’s biggest teams are playing ties which have felt like absurd formalities.
For Wiegman, there was an opportunity to solve an age-old puzzle of how to reinvigorate the midfield of Stanway and Keira Walsh. Both were unleashed by the deep-lying debutant Potter, who was unlucky to see her goal chalked off for a foul.
The Walsh-Potter pivot, so successful at Chelsea this season, was replicated to great effect, allowing Stanway license to roam. After a couple of shaky moments, Potter completed 97 per cent of her passes. The 20-year-old makes Walsh an even better player, is proving herself ahead of Wieke Kaptein at club level and has now thrown herself into the mix for next summer.
The only loser from that is likely to be Ella Toone, an unused substitute once again after her axe from the initial squad. With James in electric form and Laura Blindkilde Brown competing for that third spot, it is going to get harder and harder for her to force her way back in.
England are at last playing with a freedom they have not always shown since winning their second Euros. That is despite the addition of these qualifiers, which have been an additional burden in a congested calendar – whatever revenues can be milked from them.
Yet the real paradox is that finishing behind Spain in qualifying has entailed no real punishment. England have benefited from these run-outs so much more than Greece, one of the nations these games are supposed to help develop. Meanwhile, a formidable Belgium team have crashed out altogether and Wales and Scotland are going through a convoluted process after topping their groups.
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When I asked Wiegman if she thought the new system had worked, she was guarded and careful not to criticise Uefa. “Of course we wanted to qualify straight away, that’s not the case. And for us now, the facts are that we are in the play-offs, we have played Greece, now we’re through, now we’re going to play Ukraine and that’s what my focus is on,” she said.
“Of course, Uefa will refuel things and how things are set up and see whether they think it works or it should be better or different. I don’t think it’s my place now to refuel that, I’m here for England to win these games and qualify for the World Cup.”
Plenty of other countries will have grumbles – and the World Cup risks being a poorer tournament for it.
And as WSL attendances fall and England games do not sell out, fans need to see competitive dust-ups. Ukraine will hope they can provide one in the final hurdle in the Lionesses’ way before Brazil.