Alessia Russo double for England sparks Women’s World Cup qualifying win against Ukraine

Alessia Russo double for England sparks Women’s World Cup qualifying win against Ukraine Ukraine 1-6 England Georgia Stanway and Jess Park also score twice With a flurry of second-half goals England began their Women’s World Cup qualifying campaign in a 6-1 victory against Ukraine. Alessia Russo, Georgia Stanway and Jess Park all scored twice. The European champions may feel they should have won by a greater margin: they were profligate in the first half, but eventually opened the floodgates as Park continued her bright Manchester United form. The match was played on neutral territory in Antalya, Turkey, because of the war in Ukraine, and there appeared to be no more than around 250 people in the stands, including around 100 England fans. Sarina Wiegman said on Monday that the Lionesses had received assurances from the UK government they were safe in Turkey but they were keeping in close contact with authorities, monitoring the developing war in the Middle East. England appeared focused, though, and moved the ball quickly to dominate the contest. With Ukraine sitting deep from the start, England were on top but wasteful from goalscoring positions. They enjoyed 80% of first-half possession and had 40 touches of the ball in their opponents’ penalty area before the break, but did not score until the second half. After Russo established a two-goal lead within six minutes of the restart, England defended a set-piece poorly and Ukraine scored from their first attack through Yana Kalinina, but Stanway restored the two-goal cushion from the penalty spot, then rifled into the top corner to make it 4-1. Stanway later provided a low pass for Park to make it 5-1, before Park curled in a classy finish that justified Wiegman’s decision to start her. The lively Russo had already had chances to collect a first-half hat-trick, first with a low shot well saved, before her free header looped over the crossbar and later another header was blocked, after Stanway had a driven effort save...