By Aimee Logan (23/9/23)
Above: The Lionesses thank their travelling fans: PHOTO: Lionesses twitter.
After the close 2-1 win over Scotland, the Lionesses were looking to dominate the away fixture in Utrecht against arguably the toughest opposition in their group, the Netherlands.
The Netherlands faced Belgium in their opening fixture but fell short and suffered a 2-1 defeat. The Lionesses were eager to be victorious as they know they will have to face them again, on 1st December, in front of a packed home crowd in Wembley stadium. However, the English girls fell at the final hurdle when a 90th minute goal secured Netherlands a 2-1 win.
There was a slow start for both sides, but the Netherlands began dominating. A couple of long-distance strikes didn’t put Mary Earps in any trouble though. A chance from the Lionesses came from Lauren Hemp’s cross to Alessia Russo but the pass was cut out by a Dutch defender. The first testing chance for the Netherlands came in the 29th minute when Mary Earps was forced to make a save and then the Netherlands seemed dominant.
The first goal of the game came in the 34th minute when a mistake from the England defensive line led to the ball falling nicely at Danielle Van de Donk who back passed to the waiting Lieke Martens to strike one past Mary Earps. The goal was arguably inevitable as the Dutch consistently were hungry to score. However, on a further look is sure that Van de Donk did receive the ball in an offside position, so if VAR was in play for the fixture, the goal would have been disallowed. Even in a post-match interview, England manger Sarina Weigman says herself how the goal was ‘so obvious offside’.
This alone, but many in many other women’s footballmatches, highlights the importance of VAR being in practice in senior level football. The alternate England home game at Wembley stadium is very likely to have VAR in play and the variety between games with and without the technology shouldn’t be changed throughout tournaments, and definitely not between different fixtures in the group stage. The men’s national teams consistently play with VAR, and it should be changed to assist the Women’s game in making the right decision for offside and fouls.
At half time the score sat at 1-0 to the Dutch home side.
One substitution at half-time saw Rachel Daly come off and Chloe Kelly come on for England. For me personally, I was shocked by this decision as despite Daly being on a yellow card, she hit the post once in the first half and was one of the best performing players on the pitch. I think that in my eyes, there was a larger list of players who should have come off over Rachel Daly as her versatility was needed.
England found energy and dominated the opening of the second half. New Aston Villa signing, goalkeeper Daphne Van Domselaar made some incredible saves off her line to keep Netherlands one above the visitors. Lauren Hemp was consistently at the heart of the shots on target, but she never succeeded in pushing one past Domselaar. I’m excited to see how she’s going to perform at Aston Villa this season as if she consistently plays how she did in this game, Villa are likely to have a strong goalkeeper at the back this season.
In the 64th minute a glimpse of hope for England as an impressive shot from Alessia Russo find the back of the net pushes the score line to 1-1. As it stood at a draw, both sides would take away one point from the fixture.
There was a surprised absence on Lionesses wonderkid Lauren James in the starting line-up, but she came on for goal scorer, Alessia Russo, in the 81st minute. I think this wasn’t enough time for James to settle into the game and leave the mark that she wanted to. There was little opportunity for her to get on the ball and the shot she took, from distance, was off target and didn’t challenge the keeper.
For the final 10 minutes the balance of play between the two sides was almost equal, with opportunity for both England and the Netherlands to take away the full three points from the match. However, an out of character mistake from Alex Greenwood let the ball drop perfectly at Lieke Martens feet and she slid the ball through the defensive line towards Jansen who scored to secure Netherlands the three points they really needed.
England leave Utrecht with a defeat and after the first leg of the Nations league group stage, they sit 3rd in the group with Netherlands in 2nd. Both sides have equal points and equal goal difference so there is still all to play for in the next leg in October.
The players now return to their clubs as many prepare for the start of the WSL on Sunday 1st October.
Teams:
ENGLAND (3-4-3): Earps, Carter, Bright, Greenwood, Bronze, Stanway, Zelem, Daly, Hemp, Russo, Toone
Substitutes used: Kelly, James
Scorer: Russo ‘64
Netherlands (3-4-1-2): van Domselaar, Dijkstra, Spitse, Janssen, Pelova, Groenen, van de Donk, Brugts, Roord, Beerensteyn, Martens
Substitutes used: Kaptein, Egurrola, Wilms, Jansen
Scorers: Martens ‘34, Jansen ‘90
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