Georgia Stanway: 'You’ve just got to be confident in your own strategy'

Georgia Stanway acknowledged England were really challenged by Haiti but was happy to get her 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup campaign underway having watched on for the last two days.

Haiti may be 53rd in the world rankings but they proved a worthy opponent for the Lionesses at Brisbane Stadium.

England enjoyed 75 per cent possession and three times more shots than Haiti but had it not been for a fine stop by Mary Earps, the Caribbean nation could have secured a historic draw, in what was their first-ever World Cup match.

In the end, Stanway’s penalty around the half-hour mark, which had to be retaken after initially being saved, proved to be enough for Sarina Wiegman’s side.

Stanway said: “They challenged us and were very dangerous on the counte-rattack so that’s something that we’ll work on in training this week.  

“We knew they were going to be dangerous, Mary came up with a big save and everybody played their part.” 

She continued: “We got the three points on the board and the most important thing is that we got three points and it’s the first game so off to a good start.” 

Haitian ‘keeper Kerly Theus had already made saves when she managed to stop Stanway’s initial penalty midway through the first-half.

But the Bayern Munich midfielder kept her composure to beat Theus at the second time of asking.

Stanway said: “I was just focused on the ball and I was focused on the situation. You block out everything that’s around you. To be fair the first one was a very good save so credit for the save but obviously, she was off the line.” 

When asked if she was tempted to change sides, Stanway responded: “A little bit but then at the same time you’ve just got to be confident in your own strategy, there’s a process that I go through and I just stuck to that.” 

England will now look to prepare for their second Group D match on Friday against Denmark, who are currently playing China.

The match will be shown live on BBC 1 and iPlayer, with kick-off at 9.30am BST.

Stanway added: “The first game is just to settle the nerves, you can build momentum and it’s just nice to get that World Cup feel after watching for two days.”