🏆 Early Beth Mead strike sees England beat Austria in Euro 2022 opener | OneFootball

England got their Euro 2022 campaign off to the best possible start as an early Beth Mead goal was enough to see them beat Austria 1-0.

Scorers: Mead 16′

Sarina Wiegman opted for an attacking starting XI here as Beth Mead, Ellen White, Georgia Stanway and Lauren Hemp all taking their places in the side.

It was a brilliantly raucous atmosphere inside Old Trafford with the Lionesses hot favourites to start the tournament with a win.

But it was a tentative start for the home side as Austria looked to make the most of their nervousness on the ball as Katharina Naschenweng proved dangerous down the left-hand side.

Slowly England got themselves a foothold in the game though and took the lead on 16 minutes as Beth Mead ghosted into the area and chipped the ball over the goalkeeper and just over the line.

It really should have been 2-0 moments later as Ellen White found some space inside the six yard box but glanced her header wide of the far post.

And it was White again who headed wide on the stroke of half time as the hosts went into the break with a narrow lead.

Into the second half and once again it was England who were doing all the attacking, but as in the first 45 minutes, were struggling to find their killer touch inside the area.

Alessia Russo came on midway through the half and went close soon after as the Manchester United striker found half a yard inside the area but scuffed her effort at goal.

It took until the final 15 minutes before Austria had their first real effort on goal with Mary Earps making a wonderful save from Barbara Dunst’s long range strike.

The away side pushed for that equaliser but they couldn’t find it as England held out for a win.