England hopes to be sharper in next Women’s World Cup match after underwhelming opener

By JENNA FRYER AP National Writer

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — Katie Robinson knows England left many unimpressed with its underwhelming 1-0 victory against overmatched Haiti in its opening match at the Women’s World Cup.

England is still tied with Denmark atop the Group D standings, regardless of how they played against Haiti, and that’s all that really counts to Robinson.

“Every game at a World Cup is going to be difficult,” Robinson said. “Most importantly, we got the three points, and that’s all that matters right now.”

Well, what actually matters next is today’s match against Denmark in Sydney, where the top spot in the group is up for grabs as both teams try to advance to the knockout round.

It is the first meeting between the two teams at the Women’s World Cup, although they faced off three previous times at the European Championship.

England defeated Denmark twice in 1984, but the Danes were the winner in 2005, the last time the two nations faced in international play. They met in a friendly in 2019, won by England 2-0.

Denmark is back at the World Cup for the first time since 2007 and beat China 1-0 in its opening game.

England understands it must pick up its play against Denmark, which is ranked 13th in the world and a far tougher opponent than Haiti.

“We’re all working really hard in training to make sure we’re a bit more clinical, creating more chances and obviously getting our goal percentage higher. We know it’s something that we need to improve on,” England forward Lauren Hemp said. “We are working really hard as a team to make sure that we’re ready for the game against Denmark and ready to score some goals.”

England is ranked fourth in the world and the reigning European champions. The Lionesses won all six of their games to win the tournament they hosted last year. But England has not scored a goal in open play since the 23rd minute of the Women’s Finalissima against Brazil on April 6 — a span of 367 minutes.

“Heading into the World Cup, we’ve shown that we’re dominant against a lot of teams, so we just need to be a bit more clinical and have those