England open Euros with record attendance at Old Trafford and 1-0 win

July 7 - England and Beth Mead kicked off their Euro 2022 celebration with a narrow 1-0 victory over Austria in the tournament's curtain-raiser in front of a record crowd for a 68,871-fan Women's Euro match at Old Trafford.< /p>

The long-awaited finals finally began on Wednesday and a fine strike from Mead, who had missed the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, kept England on course from the start. Austria looked in danger of being swept away, but held on despite England dominating much of the game.

"We showed different faces in this game," England coach Sarina Wiegmann said. "Some good, some not so good. In the second half we were too sloppy on the ball and not good enough in transition. We should have scored a few times but we didn't let the chances slip away. Don't under - don't estimate Austria, they are a very strong team."

It wasn't a convincing win for the Lionesses, but they deserved the win. The result was almost predictable after England won last year against the same opponent with the same scoreline.

With Northern Ireland and Norway meeting on Thursday to enter Group A, the English will be confident of advancing to the knockout stage of a tournament that promises to be the biggest and the best European championship of all time. The playing field is wide open with, arguably, six or seven teams having realistic hopes of lifting the trophy on July 31.

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