Second-half goals by the Manchester City striker Nikita Parris and the Chelsea winger Karen Carney gave England a victory over Belgium in Leuven that enabled them to end their Euro 2017 qualifying campaign five points clear at the top of their group and with an unbeaten record.
“It was a very good win against a solid, well-organised team that made it difficult for us at times with their aggressive defending and their direct play when they pushed forward,” the head coach, Mark Sampson, said. “We struggled at times to keep possession of the ball up front in the first half, but we found the right balance in the second half and in the end I thought it was a comfortable victory.
“I was delighted with the quality of our goals and with another clean sheet – that’s 32 goals scored in our eight group matches and only one conceded.”
Belgium were the only one of England’s group opponents to have avoided defeat against Sampson’s team and also the only side to have scored against them, a dreadful mistake by the goalkeeper Karen Bardsley having cost the goal in a 1-1 draw at Rotherham in April.
A couple of early catches from lofted crosses calmed any nerves Bardsley may have been feeling, while at the other end Justien Odeurs had to make a sixth-minute save from the midfielder Jill Scott’s 12-yard shot and then could only watch as a Lucy Bronze drive flew just past the far post.
As the Belgians came more into the game, however, Bronze was next in goalmouth action to break up a dangerous attack on the half-hour.
England were ineffective in attack for the remainder of the first half but should have taken the lead three minutes after the interval when Bronze set Scott free in the area only for the Manchester City player to shoot wastefully wide.
Three minutes later a chance fell to Carney from a Parris cross, but the winger’s 15-yard half-volley was well saved by Odeurs. As Belgium retaliated Bardsley had to tip an Elke van Gorp header over the bar; but the deadlock was broken when Parris headed home a Carney cross in the 65th minute. From that point England controlled the game comfortably and wrapped up victory five minutes from time, Carney working her way past three defenders before shooting home from just inside the penalty area.
This was England’s last competitive game before the Euro finals, which are to be played in the Netherlands during July and August next year, but a programme of friendlies against tough opponents – mostly European – is being put together by the Football Association.
The first of them is a meeting with France at Doncaster next month. England have not beaten the French in 16 games spread over 42 years and Sampson said: “France are clearly one of the best teams in world, and they will be a really good test for us. These are the sort of teams we want to be playing in the buildup to the finals and we will be aiming to make the most of all the international windows between now and next July.”
A team who England might come up against in the Netherlands is Scotland, who beat Iceland 2-1 on Tuesday to finish joint top of their group and qualify for the first time for a major tournament. Sampson said: “I’m delighted for Anna [Signeul, Scotland’s coach]. It will be good to see them at a big tournament, a tournament that I think will be terrific and very difficult with some excellent teams involved.”
