Scotland women savaged by English Lionesses
SCOTLAND’S women were handed a harsh lesson last night as England’s Lionesses roared to the European Championship’s biggest win so far and laid down a marker to the rest of the continent.
A Jodie Taylor hat-trick and goals from Ellen White, Jordan Nobbs and Toni Duggan gave manager Mark Sampson the perfect start as England lived up to all the hype here in Holland.
Tournament favourites Germany and France struggled to get going in their opening games but England had no such trouble as the Scottish defence was dismantled.
Such was the confidence within the Auld Enemy backroom staff that Sampson started with three recognised strikers — Taylor, White and Fran Kirby — in a clear statement of his attacking confidence. It paid off, handsomely.
This started like a typical Scotland-England fixture: a crunching 50-50 challenge inside five seconds.
However, once England took the lead they had the result nailed down against the major tournament debutants.
Scotland’s Manchester City striker Jane Ross tested Karen Bardsley from distance after just 20 seconds, but they would barely lay a finger on England after that.
The Lionesses just had too much class, and power, for their greatest rivals to cope with.
Sampson came to the tournament with a plan to produce its fittest team and down the right-hand side he must have two of its mostenergetic players in full-back Lucy Bronze and midfielder Nobbs.
That pairing were already causing problems when, 11 minutes in, the former cut in off the flank to thread a ball into Kirby’s path through the middle.
Scotland’s high-line defence were sucked in by the Chelsea forward’s run when she dummied, leaving Taylor clean through and able to put a calm and clinical finish past Gemma Fay.
The Scots were rattled and failed to offer any real response, seemingly losing the impetus that had served them well in the first ten minutes.
Kirby was proving a nuisance and when she was fouled out on the left, it gave Nobbs the chance to set up the second.
Her superb delivery was nodded down into the path of Bronze, who twisted and turned to shoot at goal before the ball was cleared from the line.
But it only fell as far as Taylor, who poked the ball beyond the desperate Scotland defenders.
There was no let-up from there, either. Jill Scott fired at goal from 30 yards moments later and, although Fay managed to tip on to the bar, White was first on the scene to slide in the rebound as the Scotland defence were punished for being slow to react.
If the Scots were hoping for a drop in the tempo after half-time, they were never going to get it from Taylor.
She sealed her hat-trick, the first at a Women’s Euros since 1997, eight minutes after the break with a delightful chip after White’s cushioned header had put her through again.
Nobbs volleyed a brilliant fifth goal and Duggan completed the rout with a header in stoppage-time.
In what was the final game of the group stage’s first round of fixtures, Europe will have been watching and will fear an England side which showed flair and no little skill.
For Scotland manager Anna Signeul it is now a task of raising spirits ahead of further challenges against Portugal and Spain.