Stanway a "warrior" as England beat Greece 5-0 to complete 8-1 play-off aggregate

Georgia Stanway scored as England defeated Greece 5-0 in Leicester this week in the Women's World Cup qualifying play-offs to complete an 8-1 aggregate victory, and manager Sarina Wiegman described the midfielder as a "warrior" after the performance.

Stanway opened the scoring in Crete as England won 3-1 in the first leg, finished the current season as England's top scorer and netted 11 times in her last 11 matches; she also ranks inside the top three for most goals scored by European players in international football since Euro 2025 and is 27 years old.

In Leicester, Wiegman had called for more ruthlessness and the team responded as Alessia Russo and Lauren James each recorded doubles; Stanway nearly matched them when she controlled a long ball inside the box with one touch and, with the second, fired it into the bottom corner only for the strike to be ruled out for offside, much to Wiegman's dismay.

Asked about Stanway's goalscoring form, Wiegman said: "She is always so eager to go towards goal. She has that tenacity in her," and added: "She is always aggressive out of possession but also in possession. She scored a great header and controlled that really good ball from Alex Greenwood. "That was really good athleticism and composure. Unfortunately that was disallowed but it was really good! "Football is about scoring goals, but also playing in the pockets, keeping the ball and connecting with other players - and I was happy with her [doing those]."

Former England goalkeeper Rachel Brown-Finnis told BBC Radio 5 Live that Stanway was "unplayable at times" against Greece on Tuesday night and compiled a set of match statistics: she won all her tackles, had a 90% passing accuracy rate, took four shots, scored once and had another disallowed.

The match featured a midfield reshuffle that saw 20-year-old debutant Lexi Potter, the Chelsea midfielder, provide cover which allowed Stanway and Keira Walsh to push higher up while Lauren James occupied the number 10 role; Brown-Finnis added: "Stanway has shown how flexible she is, how exceptional she is both at the bottom end of the pitch, breaking up play, as well as at the top end," and said: "She was playing as a second striker, playing out on the right, dropping deep as a number 10. She's been absolutely brilliant."

Wiegman explained the selection and positional changes in her own remarks to BBC Radio 5 Live: "I liked the balance of the midfield. There is a lot of competition going on in that area," and continued: "There were a few reasons. First of all, I wanted to see Lexi Potter deeper on the pitch and what that might bring. "There was also the option to put Georgia Stanway higher up the pitch. We wanted to score more goals and we know that she can do that. "She can play in the pocket and also deeper on the pitch so we wanted to see all of that."

England still must navigate a two-legged play-off tie against Ukraine at the end of the year to qualify for the 2027 Women's World Cup in Brazil; the sides have already met in the league phase of qualifying, where England beat Ukraine 9-1 on aggregate across two games.