Alessia Russo double for England sparks Women’s World Cup qualifying win against Ukraine

With a flurry of second-half goals England began their Women’s World Cup qualifying campaign in a 6-1 victory against Ukraine. Alessia Russo, Georgia Stanway and Jess Park all scored twice.

The European champions may feel they should have won by a greater margin: they were profligate in the first half, but eventually opened the floodgates as Park continued her bright Manchester United form.

The match was played on neutral territory in Antalya, Turkey, because of the war in Ukraine, and there appeared to be no more than around 250 people in the stands, including around 100 England fans. Sarina Wiegman said on Monday that the Lionesses had received assurances from the UK government they were safe in Turkey but they were keeping in close contact with authorities, monitoring the developing war in the Middle East.

England appeared focused, though, and moved the ball quickly to dominate the contest. With Ukraine sitting deep from the start, England were on top but wasteful from goalscoring positions. They enjoyed 80% of first-half possession and had 40 touches of the ball in their opponents’ penalty area before the break, but did not score until the second half.

After Russo established a two-goal lead within six minutes of the restart, England defended a set-piece poorly and Ukraine scored from their first attack through Yana Kalinina, but Stanway restored the two-goal cushion from the penalty spot, then rifled into the top corner to make it 4-1. Stanway later provided a low pass for Park to make it 5-1, before Park curled in a classy finish that justified Wiegman’s decision to start her.

England players react after Jess Park (No 7) had scored her side’s fifth goal. Photograph: Reuters

The lively Russo had already had chances to collect a first-half hat-trick, first with a low shot well saved, before her free header looped over the crossbar and later another header was blocked, after Stanway had a driven effort saved and Laura Blindkilde Brown’s effort bounced down off the underside of the bar.

Russo’s Arsenal teammate, Lotte Wubben-Moy, started the game after Alex Greenwood picked up a “minor muscle injury” and Wubben-Moy almost opened the scoring with a close-range backheel that was blocked on the line. Shortly afterwards, Lauren Hemp ran through the defence centrally but her right-footed shot trickled wide of a post.

After half-time Wiegman gave a senior international debut to Poppy Pattinson at left-back, in place of Taylor Hinds. Playing for her country for the first time since the Euro 2025 final, the captain Leah Williamson was given a rest to manage her minutes, replaced by Esme Morgan. Wiegman also switched her wingers, with Hemp moving to the right and Jess Park to the left, and that seemed to work tremendously. Russo was soon collecting a Walsh pass, turning inside and slotting in the opener, before Hemp cut inside on to her left foot to supply a low cross for Russo’s second.

Georgia Stanway’s two goals lifted her to ninth in the Lionesses’ all-time scorer standings, with 31 goals, moving above Marieanne Spacey-Cale (30 goals), while with her double Russo is on 29, in 11th.