Kelly Smith is Sporting Life's star columnist for the Women's Euros

Kelly Smith Women’s Euros column: England face Norway not just Ada Hegerberg


England legend Kelly Smith returns for her second Sporting Life column of Women's Euro 2022, focusing on the Lionesses crunch Group A meeting with Norway on Monday.


Nervous England will get better

You could see especially in that first 10 minutes of the 1-0 win over Austria that the England players were really nervous.

I think we all expected that. It's natural when you're opening the tournament on home soil as favourites to win the whole thing playing in front of the biggest crowd of your life with 68,000 people inside Old Trafford. It really was incredibly loud too, which seemed to contribute to the ebbs and flows of nerves all game.

The England players will definitely feel much better having got that first game out of the way, got rid of some of those nerves and still come out with the huge positive of not conceding. Most importantly, they achieved all that really matters in that first match, whether at your best or not, which is to get three points on board.

No one is going to remember the first game if you get through to the quarters or the semis.

You just never want to lose that first game.


Could Williamson move to midfield?

Nerves were definitely the main factor on Wednesday, but Sarina Wiegman also sprung a bit of a surprise with her team selection.

Sarina obviously had her own ideas tactically about what she wanted. I don't really know why she changed it last minute to move captain Leah Williamson to centre-half having used Alex Greenwood and Millie Bright consistently in the preparation as her centre-back pair.

Maybe she saw something tactical about Austria that she wanted to exploit.

You could argue that England missed that long distribution that Greenwood gives you out from the back, but Wiegman brought Georgia Stanway into midfield by moving Williamson into defence and Stanway won player of the match.

And it ultimately worked because they got the win, but it'll be interesting to see whether she brings Greenwood back in for the Norway game, and if she does, who would then make way in midfield for Williamson to move further up the pitch?


Kirby could be key

A massive positive out of Wednesday's game was Fran Kirby.

Fran is a fantastic talent. She missed the final three months of the season for Chelsea because of fatigue so definitely isn't fully fit yet, and it's why she needed to come off after an hour, but she's definitely grown in stamina and confidence through the warm-up games and then into the win over Austria.

If England want to win this tournament, they need to get Fran Kirby on the ball as much as possible in that number 10 role.

She makes things happen by getting on the ball in between the lines and in the half spaces - just as she did for Beth Mead's winning goal - and also has that ability to turn and drive towards goal.

We've not seen many players in the game who make those kind of key passes with the accuracy that she does.

If England can find her in space in the final third, she'll be the key to them scoring goals and ultimately being successful this summer.

ALSO READ: All you need to know for the Euros

Norway not a one-player team

There will definitely be less pressure and fewer nerves for England going into Monday's game, but Norway beating Northern Ireland 4-1, putting in a much better performance than England and scoring what could prove to be crucial extra goals come the end of the group stage, means the Lionesses have a lot of work to do.

Austria were no pushovers and have players who can hurt you, but Norway will be a real step up.

The talk will be all about Ada Hegerberg, and we'll talk about her in a minute, but I really don't think there is just one Norway player for England to worry about.

The way Hegerberg, Caroline Graham Hansen and Chelsea's Guro Reiten performed against Northern Ireland was phenomenal. In fact, the whole left-hand-side was seriously impressive, with Julie Blakstad and Hansen linking up brilliantly.

Ingrid Syrstad Engen will be trying to dictate the tempo of the match from central midfield like she does for Barcelona, and while they have a lot of quality in the attacking areas, they look very strong in the middle of defence with Maria Thorisdottir and Maren Mjelde, players we know all about from Manchester United and Chelsea respectively.

Norway are just a very good side all round.


How good is Hegerberg?

Undoubtedly though, we have to give some special focus to Ada Hegerberg.

England's defenders will have to keep an eye on her at all moments, but the problem is she's so good at popping off the shoulder of the defender to sneak a bit of space, especially from crosses as she's so good in the air.

It's always going to be a problem when she has Reiten and Hansen flanking her providing quality crosses.

Hegerberg was so unselfish against Northern Ireland, possibly a little too unselfish at times considering she's a number 9 - in a major tournament you need that first goal to set you on your way.

Overall her performance was excellent, though, the way she floated between positions and made herself very difficult to pick up.

She will be a constant threat.

You only have to look at the fact she has scored 59 goals in 60 Champions League games to know that. It's a ridiculous stat.

After coming back from a serious injury, she seems to be back to her best and is full of confidence having won the league and Champions League with Lyon last season.

Throw into the mix that she's just returning from five years of self-imposed exile from international football and she'll be thinking this is her time to prove she is the best player in the world again.

Too tight to call

England will have to be really good one-v-one defensively because Norway have so many good individuals that can hurt you.

They'll have to keep the distances between the backline and the midfield small to compress the space, which could mean we see a bit of a game of cat-and-mouse.

England will want to attack and counter-attack, but they'll be wary of the fact they'll need to get back into shape very quickly to nullify the huge threat Norway will pose all over the pitch.

It's a really tough match to call, and one that leaves me edging towards a 1-1 draw.

For England, it could come down to the impact of their game-changers. I was pleased to see three of England's young players, Alessia Russo, Ella Toone and Chloe Kelly, get almost half an hour against Austria just to involve them and settle them down a bit for the tournament.

That should stand them in really good stead for the rest of it.

Lauren Hemp showed glimpses in the opening game, just not for the full 90 minutes, and Beth Mead always seems to come up with crucial goals at crucial times, so don't back against her doing it again on Monday night.

I'm sitting on the fence though.

  • Kelly Smith will be writing her Sporting Life Women's Euros column throughout the tournament, which runs July 6-31.

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