Women’s European Championships, England win 1-0 with Austria in the opening match

The show started with the usual full house: nothing we are not used to, because women’s football, in the last season, made these numbers here. In Manchester, for the opening match of the European Championship, there were 68,871 people at Old Trafford and tickets for the Wembley final on 31 July are already sold out: the English fans obviously hope to see Sarina Wiegman’s team on the pitch, but the competition is very fierce given that seven of the eight qualified for the quarter-finals of the last World Cup are European.

Basta Mead

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England’s start was in low gear, with a 1-0 win over Austria opening the tournament, but it was anything but a walk. The game was decided after 16 minutes: Stanway’s assist for Beth Mead – the first woman to score a hat-trick at Wembley, last October against Northern Ireland -, who lifted the lob on goalkeeper Zinsberger, teammate in Arsenal. Carina Wenninger, a defender who will play for Roma next year, attempted the desperate save but was condemned by goal line technology and the vibration of Spanish referee Huerta De Aza’s clock. The second assistant, on the opposite side with respect to the door where he marked himself, was the Italian Francesca Di Monte, who already has several appearances in A in the curriculum. And who knows if England – led by the reigning European champion coach, the Dutch Wiegman, who took over from Phil Neville – will have felt the excitement of the debut. Before the game and to see the girls on their knees against all forms of discrimination, the opening ceremony with the play of light on the sidelines and four maxi-tarps with the flags of the 16 participating teams. And how nice to see our flag.

It’s up to Hegerberg

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Tonight (9pm Italian time) in Southampton the first day of Group A will be completed, then from tomorrow it will go to the rhythm of two games a day: Norway and Northern Ireland will compete and everyone’s eyes will go to Ada Hegerberg, one of the players more anticipated than the whole of Europe. She had said enough to the national team to protest against the lack of support of the federation towards women’s football, then – after months of dialogue – she retraced her steps and the Lyon forward is ready to put her record numbers (59 goals in Champions, none like her) at the disposal of a Norway that can also count in the squad the Inter player Anja Sonstevold and the Roma player Sophie Roman Haug.

Here Italy

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There is still a long way to go to the debut of the blue, who work in the Blackburn training camp and will be the last to take the field, Sunday at 21 Italian against France, in Rotherham, where another national team – the men’s Under 17 – lost four years ago. the final of a European on penalties against Holland. Yesterday there was an exchange of jerseys between the blue and the managers of Accrington Stanley, a company that hosts Italy on its fields. On the field, however, Arianna Caruso was not seen, who had suffered a slight bruise on her left foot on Tuesday: the tests gave negative results, with a general sigh of relief.