Opta facts: England v Northern Ireland

The England Women's team will make history on Saturday 23 October 2021, as they play Northern Ireland in what will be their first competitive match at Wembley Stadium, connected by EE.

With their previous games at the national stadium both coming in friendly matches against Germany (2015 and 2019), we're now count down to kick-off for Sarina Wiegman's Lionesses who are aiming to build on their winning start to 2023 World Cup qualification.

And Opta have provided some facts and stats to whet your appetite ahead of the game, which kicks-off at 5.15pm BST and will be live on ITV 1 in the UK...

 

● England have won every game they have played against Northern Ireland (9/9) by an aggregate scoreline of 50-3; it’s the Lionesses' best 100 per cent-win ratio against an opposing nation.

 

● England have kept a clean sheet in each of their last five games against Northern Ireland in a run stretching back to March 1986, netting 26 goals themselves; only against Scotland between April 1989 – May 2001 have the Lionesses enjoyed a longer run without conceding against an opponent (a run of nine consecutive shut-outs on that occasion).

 

● England have lost just one of their last 30 matches against fellow home nations (W27 D2, including Republic of Ireland), losing 2-0 to Scotland in the Cyprus Cup back in March 2011 (unbeaten in eight such games since then).

● Northern Ireland have begun this World Cup qualifying campaign with back-to-back 4-0 victories against Luxembourg and Latvia, having won just one of their eight games in qualifying for the 2019 World Cup (L7). They’ve already scored twice as many goals (8) in qualifying for this tournament as they did in qualifying for the 2019 edition (4).

 

● England remain unbeaten in their last 62 qualifying matches for major tournaments (World Cup & EUROs including play-offs – W53 D9), keeping 14 clean sheets in their last 15 such games. Their last defeat in qualifying came against France in a play-off back in November 2002 (0-1).

 

● England have scored 18 goals in their last two games with eleven different scorers (including own goals - eight against North Macedonia and ten versus Luxembourg), as many goals as they had managed in their previous 12 matches in all competitions combined, while this is also the most goals the Three Lionesses have ever scored across a two-game period (previously 17 courtesy of a 4-1 win over Austria and a 13-0 win against Hungary in September/October 2005).

 

● Northern Ireland’s eight goals in this World Cup qualifying campaign have come from 68 attempts on goal, with six different players finding the back of the net (only Marissa Callaghan and Rachel Furness scoring more than once for the Green and White Army – with two each).

 

● Ellen White has scored 15 goals in her last 15 games for England in all competitions, netting braces in each of the Lionesses’ two games in this World Cup qualifying campaign.