When England’s women’s national team beat Latvia 10–0 in a UEFA Women's World Cup qualifier in October, that was bad enough. But evidently the Lionesses felt it needed to be twice as bad in the return fixture.
England set a national record with a 20–0 thrashing of Latvia on Tuesday, improving to 6-0-0 in group play with a goal differential of +53 (53 scored, zero conceded). The 20 goals were scored by 10 players, four of whom netted hat tricks. One of those, Ellen White, became the all-time leading scorer in program history, with her three goals taking her career tally to 48. Alessia Russo, who also scored a hat trick, didn’t enter until the 60th minute. Beth Mead scored all three of her goals by the 23rd minute, including opening the scoring three minutes in, while Lauren Hemp led England with four strikes, two in each half. Only of England’s goals came from the penalty spot, and it was scored by Georgia Stanway, to complement her match-high six assists.
Such was England’s dominance on the day that outside of a stretch between the 23rd and 42nd minutes, it didn't go more than six minutes without a goal.
Its previous record scoreline was a 13–0 win over Hungary in 2005. England broke that in the 71st minute, making it 14–0 on the first of Russo's goals. Her 11-minute hat trick was the fastest in England women’s history.
The result, clearly, was never in question, nor is England’s place at the 2023 Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, even if qualifying stretches out until next September. With four games to play, England leads Austria and Northern Ireland by five points each and still has rematches with Luxembourg (which it already beat 10–0) and North Macedonia (which it defeated 8–0) on the docket.
The gap between top and bottom in the women’s game in Europe is vast. As if the England scoreline and goal-differential totals weren't stark enough, Spain has a +43 goal differential through five games in its group, while France is +33 through five games, Belgium is +33 through six games, Denmark is +32 through six matches and Germany is at a +29 through six. It's bleak among the bottom-feeders. Latvia is at -44 though five games, Faroe Islands sits at -38 through five and Armenia is at -36 through five. Until that gap closes considerably, scorelines approaching England-Latvia territory will continue to persist.
