England continued their march towards a first Euros win with a 5-0 demolition of N Ireland in their Final Group A match having already qualified for the quarter-finals as group winners.
Fresh on the back of a record win against Norway, the Lionesses carried that momentum into their match at St Mary’s Stadium against opponents making their debut appearance at the Euros.
Chelsea’s Fran Kirby opened the scoring with a curling long-range finish in the 40th minute before Beth Mead added her fifth goal of the tournament four minutes later to take her top of the scoring charts.
Northern Ireland, the lowest ranked team in the Euros, did their best to stem the English tide but a double from Alessia Russo five minutes apart shortly after halftime destroyed any hope they had of keeping the score down. Their evening got worse as an attempted clearance from Kelsie Burrows in the 75th minute looped over goalkeeper Jacqueline Burns and into her own net to make it 5-0 to England.
England after beating Northern Ireland will play the second-placed team in Group B in the quarter-finals of the Euros on Wednesday.
Austria joins England as the other qualifiers from Group A, having overcome four-time runnerup Norway in the final game to secure their passage. Norway needed at least two goals to progress but the Austrian defense did its job with keeper Manuela Zinsberger only having to face two shots all game.
Nicole Billa scored the only goal of the game in the 37th minute to seal their progress where they will take on Germany.
