Talking Football With...Lianne Sanderson: England Were Ruthless Against Norway But They Shouldn't Be Tournament Favourites

In the latest edition of our partnership with Lianne Sanderson, we unpacked England’s incredible 8-0 victory over Norway Women at the European Championships on Monday night. It was a record-breaking victory for the hosts on the South Coast and Lianne was full of praise for Sarina Weigman’s side.

England Women are the new joint-favourites with most bookmakers to go all the way in this tournament. Lianne is asked whether that is a little justified and previews England’s next match against Northern Ireland on Friday night.

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What were your biggest surprises for the 1st round of fixtures?

“Obviously England vs Norway, first and foremost. But if I’m talking about a non-English team, I’ll probably say Italy losing 5:1 to France in the way they did.”

“I think Italy really put themselves on the map in the last tournament. I played in Italy, a lot of my Juventus teammates play for Italy, and I was really surprised at how France just completely run through them, ran the show. It was almost more one-sided than the England vs Norway game if that is even possible.”

“I think that England just smelled blood and went after it down that right-hand side with (Julie) Blakstad having one of the worst games in her career. And I feel for players when that happens.”

“I think Italy looked just really, really off the pace. They didn’t look like they were ready but France is a really good team. So I would probably say that one was probably a shock to me. But again, Norway vs England, 8:0, I mean I can’t sit here and not talk it up.”

“It’s just something that anybody predicted in the world of football ever and it was a massive shock result. I can’t think of a bigger shock result than this. Even when I was playing and when I’ve been working in television and broadcasting. I just can’t think of a bigger shock than this.”

“Because everybody was saying the same stuff. You know, “it’s gonna be a tight game, this is gonna show where England are at,” and to be 6:0 at half-time and to be 8:0 it’s just unbelievable. And Norway got a lot of players that play for top teams all over Europe, and England was just on a different level, they really were.”

Denmark lost 4-0 to Germany. How disappointed are you in the Danes?

“I was surprised by that because they have Pernille Harder, one of the best players in the world. But there’s only so far you can go with only having only a couple of good players, especially in this tournament. It was a difficult game for them because Germany is a top, top team and when they’re good, they’re very good.”

“They never really have an off day. So I feel like when they do they’re never as bad as everybody else when they have a bad day. Unfortunately for Denmark, it was just a day where Germany just came alive and was fantastic.”

Are Germany a force to be reckoned with for the remainder of the tournament?

“Germany always are. You can never rule them out. Germany just seems to breed talent after talent and great players. Marozsán wouldn’t be playing in this tournament because she tore her ACL and the fact that not many people are talking about this. This is one of the best players in the world and I know she’s been out for a while now but then without her and they’re still fantastic.”

“So, I don’t think you can never write Germany off, and they’re still a team that nobody wants to play against. I still think they carry that fear factor.”

“Germany are always a team that everyone is still scared of.”

Was it the perfect game against Norway or did you see any room for improvement?

“It’s difficult, isn’t it, because I don’t think it automatically made England the favourites.”

“I’m one of those people, probably only of the people who think that. I don’t think, I mean, football’s a crazy, crazy game because people don’t want to give credit that much when the team plays really well and they say the other team didn’t play well.”

“I just think England in the first half was ruthless. I think they saw that Blakstad was having a torrid time at that left-back position. Beth Mead, Georgia Stanway, Lucy Bronze were really making the most of that, and that’s something I liked about England’s performance. It was just happening and I’m sure that they looked around and you were thinking, “Is this really happening right now?” Because they were getting so much joy down that right-hand side.”

“In the first half it could have probably been about 8:0, Beth Mead had a couple of chances, and Fran Kirby had a couple of chances. But it was all coming down England’s right-hand side. I liked the fact that they just kept giving it. I saw Lucy Bronze pick up the ball a couple of times and she looked around as if, “Why is nobody coming to press me?” And she was just able to play a ball, a simple pass down the line to Georgia Stanway or Beth Mead and off they went.“

“I’m sure they probably thought it was gonna be a more difficult game than it was.”

“I just feel that Norway didn’t turn up and I don’t think that Norway will ever play that bad again. I know they had a result similar last year, but I don’t think they can ever play that bad again,  really don’t. I think that people are saying that Austria must be rubbing their hands together, but I actually feel quite worried for Austria, because when you have a game like that and a performance like that, you wanna make it better.”

“This is Norway! One of the best teams in the world. And they just completely capitulated and England just took it and I was just so, I was in the commentary and I’m very rarely left speechless and I was just like, “Wow!””

“Because everything you prep for and everything you kind of think is going to happen – did not happen. So you kind of have to act and react within the game and you’re just kind of sitting there and you’re thinking, “I can’t believe this. I can’t actually believe this.””

Anyone from the England team that surprised you in particular?

“Obviously, I go with Beth Mead as the player of the match, because when a player gets a hat trick I feel that they automatically get it. But Keira Walsh and Georgia Stanway for me, at this tournament, have been absolutely incredible.”

“I know people talk a lot about Keira Walsh in the WSL, and I think in the position that she plays at Manchester City and the way City have been playing this year, she hasn’t really been able to show just how really good she is. So I think people playing against her know, her teammates know.”

“She is absolutely brilliant. She really is and I can’t speak highly enough of her. She never gives the ball away. I call her the “quarterback of the team.” And in both games so far I could have given her the “player of the match.” It’s difficult because how do you give a player who hasn’t got a goal and an assist, “player of the game”?

“But, if you are looking at it from a football perspective, you watch the game properly similar to N’golo Kante, he is unbelievable, she is unbelievable! She really is brilliant.”

“She’s been brilliant and I think she’s someone who really stepped up to the plate and the pressure of playing in this tournament. She’s doing things on both sides of the ball. Attacking-wise, defending, playing the ball from deep.”

“She and Keira Walsh have done really, really well. So, I think, I wouldn’t say that Georgia Stanway has been my surprise because we know she’s a good player, but she definitely played way better. I think she’s had some of the best performances in the English shirt to date.”

Northern Ireland is next for England. Do you expect a similar result (to the Norway game) in that game considering how everything has panned out so far? 

“It’s difficult because England has almost put more pressure on themselves. It’s like a Catch-22, isn’t it? said this (game against Norway) will show exactly where England are at. And now all of a sudden people are saying England is gonna win the competition, so it’s difficult.“

“Over two games in the World Cup Qualifiers England have won 5:0, and 4:0. So scored nine goals against Northern Ireland. But I would say this is a rivalry. Not a massive rivalry, I wouldn’t say it’s a bigger rivalry than against Scotland, but I wouldn’t say Northern Ireland and England necessarily hate each other.”

“But I feel for Northern Ireland because you can only go so far with a non-professional team. They’ve only become professional for this tournament. They are gonna go back to their day jobs after this tournament and when Julie Nelson scored that goal you could see just how much it meant to them, just scoring a goal.”

“They are doing amazing things for their country by just being here. But I do think it would just be a step too far for them and this tournament has been as we’ve seen. I take my hat off to the girls for even being able to compete at this level without being professional. But I think England will win pretty comfortably.”

“I don’t think it will be like the Norway game. Because I think Northern Ireland are gonna play for pride and I think England, I hope they don’t overplay. I hope that they just do exactly what they did against Norway and be ruthless and bring it to them.”

“But I think it is still gonna be a difficult game. I’m looking forward to it. I think it will give Sarina Wiegman a chance to rest players, but having seen how she operates – I thought she would have taken players off at halftime yesterday. But she didn’t, she waited for the 60th minute, rang in the same changes, the same three, Alessia Russo, Ella Toone, as she did in the game before and it seems like something that she is going to do during this competition.”

“I was happy to see Alex Greenwood got on last night as well. I think she’s been quite unfortunate to have not played every minute so far, but I think it was not gonna matter if Alex Greenwood played. I thought it would be a matter where she plays, centre-back or left-back. So I was happy to see Alex got into the game, but I have the feeling that Sarina will play the same eleven.”

“But I think that players need to start to be resting if we get to later on in the tournament. You don’t wanna get players burned out. But, she’s the manager and not me and they know how to manage these players better than I do.”

What is your score prediction for the Northern Ireland vs England game?

“I’m gonna go with 4:0.”

“In the game at Wembley, it took until the second half for England to actually break them down. And I wouldn’t necessarily say Northern Ireland would have watched that game last night and they would have been thinking, they know how good England are.”

“It’s difficult for Northern Ireland to win in these games against Norway, against Austria, or England. They have to pray for a miracle to a certain degree. Because it’s not that players are not good enough individually, but you have a feeling that England needs to have an absolutely awful off day and Northern Ireland have the best game of their lives.”

England is now the bookmaker’s favourite to win the whole thing and bring it home. Is there anyone that can beat England if they play like against Norway?

“From watching these teams in the tournament; Sweden, Netherlands, Germany, France, I feel like they can cause problems. I think they’ve got a lot of quality in their team.”

“When you watched France play the other day, the way they passed the ball around, their patterns of play, I feel like that would be a really good matchup. If England were to play them in the tournament, if we are gonna go as the winners of this group then we play the runners-up which are either Spain or Germany, it is going to be a difficult run to the final, I think either bracket, in this competition, there is no easy road to the final.”

“Whereas I think sometimes in competitions, there are easier roads, and you see some teams thinking, “are we gonna draw this game so we end up with a weaker team.” It doesn’t work that way in this tournament this time. I think anybody can beat anyone on a given day. We could be sitting here saying England lost eight-nil to Norway because Norway has just as good players individually as England to a certain degree.”

“So I think anyone can win this competition. And I think that is what makes it great. But I do think I don’t want England to have peaked already.”

“I do worry about playing against those types of teams because I think they are top quality. I think England are only the favourites based upon it being the home nation.”

“I still think there is about like four or five teams that could win this. I genuinely do and I think Spain is in there as well. I still think Spain is in there even though they’ve lost two of their best players. One of them is the best player in the world – Alexia Putellas. I feel like they could still win it.”

Everyone was worried about where Spain’s goals were going to come from following the injuries to Putellas and Hermoso. Did they prove people wrong with that 4-1 win over Finland or were they a little fortunate to win by that margin?

“I don’t think it is fortunate. I think going a goal behind after one minute, showed good character with the fact that they came back.”

“I expected them to beat Finland, because they should. They’ve still got top players in the team. There are a lot of really good players in their team that play all over the world. Any team that loses Jenny Hermoso or Alexia Putellas would struggle”

“I think it showed great character that they went behind the way they did early on, because everybody was probably thinking, “Oh yeah they can’t play without these two players, what are they going to do?” when actually, they have a lot of quality.”

“I wasn’t surprised that they came from behind, I really wasn’t because they are a top team. I still put them as one of the favourites for this competition, I really do.”

England were unchanged after the win over Austria, were you expecting that and how did you think it worked?

“I would say that will be the eleven, you can’t change that lineup. You cannot change a lineup that wins. A manager would be silly to change it, especially in that way. I still think that time will tell. I can’t say ‘when we play against a better team’ because Norway are a top nation, so it can’t be a matter of when we play against a better team, that we would be able to tell if the left-back position is working.

“But, for me personally, I would still play Alex Greenwood, and I think when she came on into the game last night, she is the type of player – and I’ve played with Alex a number of years – who could just slot in, and look like she never missed a beat. And I, again, I feel like this tournament for her, [she] is not going anywhere near individually she would have expected.

“So, I was surprised that Alex Greenwood didn’t start last night. I thought she would have played, but this looks like the eleven that is going to continue during this tournament to play.

“This looks like it is the winning eleven, I think Ellen White scoring worked wonders for her, because, although she is England’s all-time leading goal scorer, she hasn’t done well this year for Manchester City, she hasn’t scored many goals, and she hasn’t really performed for England in front of goal. She is closing down the centre-backs but ultimately, you are judged based on your goals, and I think that was brilliant last night. Ellen seems to come alive when England really need her – whether that’s tournament football or last night. And I think she really needed that performance.

“But I can’t see Sarina Wiegman changing the lineup later on in the tournament. Against Northern Ireland, I am hoping that she plays, Ellen too, Chloe Kelly, and those types of players. But as we’ve seen, anybody that seems to come on into the game, they seem ready. They are ready to go, they don’t skip a beat.

“Russo came on and scored, and she did well when she came on. So I like the fact that the players seem like they are in good shape, good physique, they are peaking right now, which I think is something you never really know as a player, if you are going to peak during a tournament. Cause you just don’t know until you go out there.”

We talked last week about the potential threat of Ada Hegerberg and Caroline Graham Hansen. How do you think England dealt with them on Monday?

“I think Millie Bright was brilliant, I thought Leah Williamson didn’t really have anything to do, but having said that, I felt like they would have been probably having nightmares about Hegerberg, Graham Hansen, thinking “How do we stop them?” But I don’t feel like it consumed them.

“I think England’s game plan was implemented. The attack was so good and Norway’s defence was so bad that it allowed England to step up. It took until the 80th minute for Leah Williamson to have to play a ball through the line. She often had time on the ball and I am sure they must have been looking at the scoreboard and thinking this has been way easier than we expected. Millie Bright was quite physical from the get-go. [She] never gave them a sniff on the ball, winning every header.

“And I think something that they did really well defensively, which I didn’t see against Austria, they were covering really well for each other. There were a couple of incidents where Rachel Daly covered for Leah Williamson, Lucy Bronze for Millie Bright when she went out, so I feel like they had really good communication. I said against Austria they couldn’t hear each other in the game. Last night against Norway they definitely figured that out.

“Hegerberg and Graham Hansen got substituted in around the 70th minute, 75th minute, and I am quite sure that any of us never saw that coming, 8-0 and those two players getting substituted. The game was already done.“

England had a lot of joy down the right last night. What did you make of Lucy Bronze and Beth Mead?

“I thought they were brilliant. I love Lucy Bronze, I’ve played with her for a number of years. I think she is a fantastic player. I think she is the only world-class player we do have. I think Lauren Hemp has the potential, I think she has done well in this tournament, I like her. But I think the next tournament she will be even better after having that tournament experience.

“With Lucy Bronze what you see is what you get. She is a nightmare to play against. You can’t get past her. There was a couple of times yesterday in the first ten minutes, Reiten looked like she got past Lucy Bronze but Lucy has this ability to be able to recover, stick her foot and just come away with the ball. And I think she just calms everybody down.

“She really didn’t have to do much in the second half yesterday but when she did get the ball, she didn’t overplay, they played every pass they should have. And I said here before, “don’t play the occasion, play the game.”

I felt like people against Austria were trying to do too much, trying to be the heroes, shooting from thirty yards out when they could have passed it. Whereas last night it felt like the players [did it right].

“Lauren Hemp and Beth Mead changing, they switched wings last night, they switched sides a lot of times, so Beth Mead moved to the left, Lauren Hemp moved to the right. And then Lauren Hemp was able to provide an assist from the right-hand side. It was fantastic, the crossing was brilliant, which is not something we have seen during this tournament with England and in warm-up games.

“I feel like it has been a lot of times when Lauren Hemp and Beth Mead are trying to beat players, but I feel they were providing a lot of good balls yesterday, that England could have the end of. Ellen White almost got at the end of a couple of good crosses. So they were brilliant down the right-hand side.

“I like the fact that they were relentless. I am sure that for Blakstad, the halftime didn’t come quick enough within the first ten minutes. You feel for the player. There is nothing she could have done. She wasn’t having a good game, but then her team, her manager, Martin Sjögren needed to maybe fix something in the game in the first half. They didn’t have enough time to wait for halftime to make things better, because it was just an absolute onslaught attack from England and Norway couldn’t handle it. It was almost like they froze and didn’t know what to do, they kept huddling but it wasn’t working.”

How pleased have you been with the attendances so far? We’ve already seen the three highest attendances ever for non-final Euros matches that don’t involve the hosts

“I think it is absolutely brilliant, and I think the fact that we know obviously England’s games are going to sell out. I still think there is a number of people that haven’t shown up for whatever reason. I have no idea why but there are still massive attendances, and the noise is absolutely brilliant. But one thing I thought was really good was in Sheffield, the Dutch fans were there, they were out in numbers.

“I know a lot of players have come out, I think Asllani spoke about how everybody should be playing at these big stadiums, I don’t agree with that. I think that Manchester City Academy Stadium, yes people can say it is a smaller stadium. If some nations prove they can sell out 70,000 people, then, by all means, play at Old Trafford. But if you can’t, and you are a player, and you are playing in front of 20,000 at a 70,000 capacity stadium, you don’t feel like anyone is there. So I feel like the attendances have been brilliant.

“I am going to the Finland-Denmark game tonight and I am really looking forward to it. It is not far from where I live, and I think a lot of people, well, I am noticing a lot of different types of fans going to the games. A few fans came up to me yesterday, people have come from Canada, someone came up to me and said that I was the reason they got involved in women’s football in 2015. Now they’ve come to this tournament in England.

“I felt like it was a lot of women’s football fans, that have been women’s football fans for years, that wouldn’t want to miss out on an event like this. I think in the WSL we see a lot of recurring fans, which is amazing with the loyalty that they show. But I think I am seeing people that I saw when I played for Arsenal when I was 14. So 20 odd years ago, they do follow the game, but I feel like they want to be a part of something special because they’ve been there when there was literally nobody at the game.

“So I think it is brilliant. I love the fan fests that are outside the stadiums. I love the fact that yesterday, the Norwegian player was substituted they were clapping. The England fans were clapping the Norwegian player off. I actually genuinely believe that the fans there at these games, when they take a knee, everybody is screaming with joy and clapping and it is such a nice family environment.”

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