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Iceland v England: Women’s World Cup 2027 qualifier – as it happened | Women’s World Cup 2027 qualifiers
Key events
That’s all from me today. Check out Suzanne Wrack’s match report.
Here’s a message from Kári Tulinius:
Being from a less than populous nation, you can’t rely on having quality anywhere in your national team. If there’s any one position where quality can transform a side’s chances, it’s in goal. I know that Iceland won’t be winning trophies, but that we have a brilliant goalkeeper in Cecilía Rúnarsdóttir, or Cessa as she’s known in Iceland, gives us license to dream big.
The opposition goalkeeper also played a pivotal role today. Hannah Hampton kept England in the game towards the end.
Full time: Iceland 0-1 England
England win their 500th game. Sarina Wiegman’s side dominated the first half, but were outplayed in the second. Iceland gave it a real go, bombarding England’s penalty area with long throws and corners. Ultimately, they couldn’t get an equaliser despite coming close a couple of times. England consolidate their position at the top of the table with another three points.
90+5 min: England are running down the clock now. All they need to do is keep the ball.
90+2 min: Wow! Jessen is through on goal and rounds Hampton, but the angle is tight and she can’t quite squeeze the ball into the back of the net.
90 min: There will be five minutes of additional time.
88 min: Jess Carter is on for Esme Morgan to shore things up at the back.
85 min: Substitute Arna Eiríksdóttir swings in a corner onto the head of one of the Iceland forwards. Hampton makes another crucial save before she’s bundled over by Jónsdóttir.
84 min: Iceland come at England again and win a corner late in the game.
83 min: All the momentum is with Iceland at the moment. Jóhannsdóttir shoots from the edge of the area and forces Hampton into an awkward save.
82 min: Iceland have another huge chance. Jónsdóttir causes more problems with her long throws and it falls to Alexandra Jóhannsdóttir. The midfielder shots from six yards out and Hampton makes an important save.
79 min: How has that stayed out! Jónsdóttir races past Bronze with ease and cuts the ball back for Jessen. The Iceland striker connects with it and hits the post with her strike. The ball still isn’t quite clear and Zomers’ shot is blocked by Hampton from six yards out.
77 min: Niamh Charles is on for Alex Greenwood.
75 min: Huge chance for Sandra Jessen! She takes the ball down from a cross and hits it straight at Hampton from point blank range. The England keeper makes a tremendous save before the offside flag goes up.
72 min: Walsh splits the Iceland defence with a delicious ball through to Park. Park tries to pick out a teammate with a cutback, but no one can connect with it.
69 min: Hemp does brilliantly on the left to get away from the defender. She clips the ball into the box for Beth Mead to attack. The Arsenal winger is first to the ball and heads it low to Rúnarsdóttir’s right.
67 min: Russo cuts the ball back to Stanway on the right, but the Bayern Munich midfielder blazes the ball over the bar.
65 min: England are starting to find their rhythm again. Greenwood whips in a cross, but it’s collected by the goalkeeper.
62 min: Glódís Viggósdóttir heads the ball wide from a corner. These are nervy moments for England. Beth Mead and Jess Park are on for Lauren James and Laura Blindkilde Brown respectively.
59 min: James lets fly with her left foot on the edge of the box. For a moment I expected a repeat of her stunner against Arsenal in the first leg of the Champions League quarter final. Instead, the ball sails well over the bar.
57 min: Hampton gives the ball away as England try to play out from the back. Iceland are gradually putting pressure on Sarina Wiegman’s side.
54 min: The second half has been more stop-start than the first. Iceland may sense that this is their best chance cause England problems.
51 min: Iceland are looking much more dangerous this half. They’ve had a number of set piece opportunities, but have failed to really test Hampton thus far.
49 min: Iceland win another set piece. Sædís Heiðarsdóttir whips a free kick in and Hannah Hampton catches the ball.
46 min: Sveindís Jónsdóttir causes problems with her long throw. The ball bounces around in the box before England clear it out for a corner.
Second half
Iceland get us going again. Lotte Wubben-Moy is on for Leah Williamson.
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Half time: Iceland 0-1 England
England are in charge of this game. They’ve had all of the ball and all of the chances, but crucially only have a one goal lead. If Iceland can find an outlet, they can get into this game.
43 min: Great play from England on the left. Keira Walsh of all people finds herself on the touchline and cuts the ball back for Greenwood. Greenwood receives the ball and drives past the fullback before sending in a cross. It’s cleared away for a corner.
38 min: Iceland take their first shot of the game! Dilja Zomers takes the ball down before hitting it wide of the post.
37 min: Russo has another chance. James threads a ball through to her but the England striker hesitates before firing towards Rúnarsdóttir’s near post. It’s easily saved by the Iceland keeper.
36 min: Russo breaks free from the Iceland defenders again and cuts the ball back for a teammate. It’s behind everyone though and the chance is wasted.
30 min: Hannah Hampton has barely had a touch of the ball so far. Iceland are yet to register a shot.
27 min: Alex Greenwood whips in a corner that is half dealt with by the Iceland defenders. The ball falls for her in the box and she fires the ball straight at the keeper.
23 min: Rúnarsdóttir keeps on putting herself under pressure needlessly. The Iceland goalkeeper gives the ball away again and England win a corner.
GOAL! Iceland 0-1 England (Russo, 21)
Lauren Hemp receives the ball brilliantly in her own half and bursts away from the Iceland defenders. Russo makes a run off of Hemp and receives the ball obligingly. The England striker turns and swivels before rifling her shot into the bottom left corner.
18 min: James has been dangerous so far. She beats Gudrún Arnardóttir with a stepover before drilling a cross along the box. It’s cleared away for another corner.
17 min: Emilía Ásgeirsdóttir makes an incredible block. This time it’s Lauren Hemp who is thwarted.
15 min: James plays a great through ball to Russo. The Arsenal striker runs on to it but her shot is blocked and the ball ricochets off her before going out for a goal kick.
12 min: Iceland are defending resolutely. The England forwards are probing but haven’t had a clear-cut opportunity as yet.
7 min: Lauren James glides past a couple of players with ease. She does a quick give-and-go with Russo but the referee blows the whistle for a foul as the England winger uses her strength to nudge one of the Iceland defenders off the ball.
5 min: Almost a huge mistake from Cecilía Rúnarsdóttir! She stumbles over the ball on her goal line and Russo almost punishes her with a tap in. The Iceland goalkeeper eventually manages to poke the ball away from danger.
3 min: England are already dominating possession while Iceland will likely rely on counter attacks and set pieces.
1 min: England have an early half chance. Lucy Bronze delivers a ball into the box and Alessia Russo’s volley is blocked and out for a corner.
Kick off
England get us under way, kicking from right to left.
The two teams are out and singing their respective national anthems.
Here’s some pre-match reading courtesy of Suzanne Wrack.
It’s been a great week for England Women’s football. The U23s won the European Competition title yesterday after they beat Sweden 3-0 in the final.
The Lionesses are warming up in special pre-match shirts to commemorate their 500th game. The shirt is available in black and white and features the Three Lions logo and number 500 inside of a Tudor rose pattern.
Team news
Iceland: Runarsdottir, Arnardottir, Viggosdottir, Sigurdardottir, Heidarsdottir, Hermannsdottir, Johannsdottir, Asgeirsdottir, Jonsdottir, Boama, Zomers
Subs: Ivarsodottir, Birkisdottir, Eiriksdottir, Jessen, Tryggvadottir, Vilhjalmsdottir, Georgsdottir, Eiriksdottir, Olafsdottir Gros, Antonsdottir, Palmadottir, Halldorsdottir
England: Hampton, Bronze, Greenwood, Walsh, Williamson, Morgan, James, Stanway, Russo, Blindkilde Brown, Hemp
Subs: Le Tissier, Moorhouse, Wubben-Moy, Carter, Hinds, Kelly, Kendall, Mead, Park, Roebuck, Charles, Parkinson
Preamble
Hello and welcome to minute-by-minute coverage of Iceland v England in the Women’s World Cup qualifier at the Laugardalsvöllur Stadium.
Today’s game is the Lionesses’ 500th of all time. In the build up to this one, the players have paid tribute to and heard from some of the pioneers who came before them. Lucy Bronze, who has 146 caps for England, said: “It’s crazy in two ways. On the one hand it’s only been 500, but at the same time – oh my God – it’s 500 games.” A win today would maintain a 100% record in Group A3 for Sarina Wiegman’s side as they push for automatic qualification for next year’s World Cup in Brazil.
Iceland need to put in a strong performance to bounce back from their 2-0 defeat against England six weeks ago. Their only win in the group came four days ago in the form of a 1-0 victory over Ukraine. Thorsteinn Halldórsson’s side will take heart from England’s previous struggles against similarly ranked teams such as Belgium and Portugal.
Kick off is at 5:30pm BST. Send me an email with your thoughts and keep refreshing the page for updates.
Key events
85 min Caicedo receives a square pass 25 yards from goal, gets it out his feet and hits a violent shot that whistles fractionally wide of the far post. It almost took out a steward behind the goal.
You don’t need some AI-generated xG to tell you that Chelsea have been pretty unlucky tonight.
83 min “On the subject of AI,” begins James Humphries, “there’s a joke here about people who don’t understand a field spending loads of money in an attempt to approximate skilled endeavour in that field only to churn out an unconvincing simulacrum, but it’s been a long week, so just plonk in Chelsea or United as preferred.”
82 min: Double substitution for Chelsea Josh Acheampong and Trevoh Chalobah replace Malo Gusto and Wesley Fofana.
81 min: Double substitution for Man Utd Amad Diallo and Mason Mount replace Matheus Cunha and Benjamin Sesko. Mount is booed onto the field.
79 min A United break is superbly thwarted by Hato, who makes excellent challenges on both Mbeumo and Fernandes.
76 min Mazraoui leans into a bouncing ball at the same time Cucurella tries an overhead kick. Mazraoui is caught and United get a free-kick. Even 20 seconds’ respite is valuable because a Chelsea equaliser feels increasingly likely.
75 min “I’d suggest that a goalkeeper relying on great saves to build his/her reputation has issues with positioning and reading the game,” writes Gary Naylor. “Get those quiet elements of the job right and your highlights reel will be thin, but your clean sheets will be high.”
You can tell that to Peter Bolesław Schmeichel. But you definitely have a point. There was a fine recent interview with Edwin Van der Sar on The Overlap in which he talked about how much pride he took in his ability to organise a defence, and that his ideal game involved him making no saves.
74 min I’m a bit surprised Man Utd haven’t brought on Amad, whose ball-carrying ability would be valuable right now. It keeps coming back at their makeshift defence.
72 min Another Chelsea corner leads to a volley from Garnacho, 15 yards out, that bounces up and is headed away. Lots of pressure on the United goal now.
70 min Cucurella is fouled on the edge of the D by Mazraoui. Chelsea are having a very good spell.
69 min Replays show that Fofana’s outstretched hand touched the ball onto the head of Mazraoui, after which it hit the crossbar, so any goal wouldn’t have counted.
68 min “Sesko doing little to dispel the impression that he is best employed as an impact substitute,” toughcrowds Adam Roberts.
67 min: Fofana hits the bar!
Neto curls an outstanding deep cross from the right that is headed against the bar by Fofana, six yards out. On TNT Sports, Ally McCoist thinks it might have been a handball – by Fofana or somebody else, because there were a load of players jumping for the ball at the far post. Either way, it was a gorgeous ball from Neto.
66 min “How do you compare a goalkeeper who is solid if unspectacular against one who is less reliable but can make saves that they really shouldn’t be able to make?” wonders David Wall. “I agree that Lammens has been excellent since he joined United and i can’t remember a mistake he’s made that has led directly to a goal. But also i can’t remember him making any jaw-droppingly incredible saves.
“Contrast that with Andre Onana who gave up plenty of goals through his mistakes but was also capable of making the kind of save that leaves centre forwards looking silly because they’ve already assumed that they’ve scored (a double save in a 0-0 draw at Palace at the start of last season comes to mind but there were many others). Given that United’s entire defence looks much calmer with Lammens at the back of it, it suggests the negative impact of conceding unexpected goals is greater than the positive impact of preventing expected ones.”
This is such an interesting subject. It’s the Schmeichel v Van der Sar debate, isn’t it? I’d say it also depends on the context: how good and dominant the team area, the type of characters you have in defence (for example, Peter Schmeichel and the Arsenal Back Four might not have worked because they hated loud keepers) and much else besides.
64 min: Fine save by Sanchez! Another really dangerous break from United. Fernandes’ disguised pass to Cunha is cut out by Fofana – but his touch spins towards goal and is clawed round the post by Sanchez. That’s a terrific save, not least because it was so unexpected.
62 min Gusto’s flat cross is volleyed wide by Palmer, an imaginative effort from about 12 yards.
61 min Fernandes wastes a four-on-four United break with an unusually loose pass into the area.
59 min Chelsea appeal for handball when Enzo’s scoop hits Mazraoui right on the edge of the area. Nothing given on the field, or in Stockley Park.
58 min Delap, who hasn’t scored since early January, has looked hangry all night and that was a terrific effort. It has changed the mood at Stamford Bridge, where the radgeometer was starting to rise.
56 min: Delap hits the bar!
Pedro Neto clips an angled cross into the area, where Delap rises majestically and flicks a superb header that hits the crossbar and bounces out. Lammens didn’t move.
54 min “Sneakily, the long-term importance of this game for United might be the potential damage to Chelsea,” writes David Howell. “A win here could not only all but lock in that extra revenue stream for them for next season, they could take out a key rival indefinitely and help smooth the path to maintaining that revenue stream. It’s sad that this is the framing for so many big matches these days, but here we are…”
52 min Caicedo rakes a long-range shot that deflects behind off Casemiro. It’s a poor corner, I think from Enzo, and United break. Fernandes collects a dainty flick from Cunha and cracks a left-foot shot from 25 yards that bounces wide. Close enough, but Sanchez had it covered I think.
51 min Nothing is happening on the field. Chelsea are having most of the ball; United are poised for any opportunities on the counter-attack.
50 min “Ernest Hemingway mentions ‘a hill to die on’ in ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’, published in 1940,” says Andrew Goudie. “But Remus (of Romulus and Remus fame) died on a hill a bit earlier than that. So who knows?”
AI knows, or at least it thinks it does, which is half about nine-tenths of the battle these days.
49 min “Google seem to have switched over to AI generated liveblogs last year and they’re wildly inaccurate,” writes Kári Tulinius. “I’ve noticed them crediting goalscorers from wrong teams. I just checked this match, and the google liveblog described Estevão as ‘writhing in pain’ when he was calmly sitting, waiting for the physios.”
I can’t really criticise mistakes in liveblogs, not lecause because I once announced a vital goal by typing WICKET! I’d been doing a lot of cricket that month, but even so.
48 min A quiet start to the second half, on and off the field.
46 min Peep peep! Chelsea begin the second half, and Joshua Keeling has news:
According to Google, ‘The phrase “this is a hill I will die on” is an idiom originating from military jargon regarding the defence of high ground at all costs, with its first recorded usage often attributed to the 1940s.’
Jonathan Wilson
Half-time reading
At half-time in the Carabao Cup final, Arsenal’s hopes of a quadruple remained strong. They were unbeaten in 14, 11 of them won. They were drawing 0-0 against Manchester City and it wasn’t unreasonable to think that if the second half carried on as the first half had, they would eventually find a winner – quite possibly from a corner.
They had drawn a Championship side in the sixth round of the FA Cup and a Portuguese side in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. They held a nine-point lead in the Premier League. This was shaping up to be the greatest season in Arsenal’s history.
That was four weeks ago. There remains a possibility of a Premier League and Champions League double, which would be remarkable enough, but the mood is very different now. This could become the most disappointing season in Arsenal’s history, if only because
Half time: Chelsea 0-1 Man Utd
A few half-hearted boos when Michael Oliver blows for half-time. Chelsea were the better team for much of the first half, only to be caught out by a terrific finish from Matheus Cunha.
45+3 min “It’s been a good half from United,” writes Joshua Keeling. “Chelsea looked the likelier scorers for most of it, but United did well to score late on. Fernandes will surely be the player of the season.
“A hill I will defend to the end, though, is that Amorim did a good job at United. He inherited a a shambles, and instilled structure and discipline, some of which has been lost since he left.
“PS how good is Senne Lammens?! It’s so nice to have a proper goalkeeper.”
I wonder who was the first position to die on a hill, or at least use that phrase.
45+1 min Fofana was off the field when the goal was scored – he received treatment which meant he had to go off for 30 seconds.
45 min Five added minutes.
Man Utd have taken the lead against the run of play. Bruno Fernandes ignored a challenge from Garnacho on the right, got to the byline and angled a cutback towards the penalty spot. Sesko was wrestling with Caicedo, which allowed Cunha to run onto the ball and sidefoot emphatically past Sanchez.
That’s a cracking finish from Cunha, and an 18th assist of the Premier League season for the magnificent Bruno Fernandes.
GOAL! Chelsea 0-1 Man Utd (Cunha 43)
Now that’s a first touch from Matheus Cunha!
41 min Fofana is down and in obvious discomfort. He was accidentally caught by his teammate Sanchez, who came flying out to punch a free-kick clear.
40 min “Forty-odd years ago, nobody knew what Hafnia was, but there they were on Everton’s shirts,” writes Gary Naylor. “I’m as clueless now about IFS.AI emblazoned on Chelsea’s kit and perimeter adverts. However, I’m prepared to hazard a guess that they are not a Danish meat processing company. I think, on LinkedIn, they call it progress.”
Wait until AI starts writing these live blogs. That’ll redefine progress.
39 min Neto’s cross from the right hits the unsighted Enzo six yards from goal. Delap jumped in front of him and couldn’t reach the ball, which meant Enzo had no time to adjust his body.
United break and Hato is booked for fouling Mbeumo.
38 min: Disallowed goal for Chelsea! Enzo’s awkward shot from the edge of the area is spilled in front of goal by the diving Lammens. Palmer squares the loose ball for Delap to walk it in, but they were both offside when Enzo had the original shot.
Police say a grey Ford Kuga was seen driving northbound on the southbound carriageway of the M90 at about 22:30 on Friday.
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It shows security officials typically indicate a low, moderate or high level of concern followed by an explicit recommendation that clearance be approved, approved with risk management, or denied. Both sets of options are reflected by green, yellow, or red boxes.
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