Russo: We were ruthless

Alessia Russo felt England were at their clinical best as they beat Greece 5-0 at the King Power Stadium to progress to round two of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027 qualification play-offs.

A brace each from Russo and Lauren James, plus a strike from Georgia Stanway sealed an 8-1 aggregate victory for Sarina Wiegman’s side, who will face Ukraine over two legs in November for a place at next summer’s tournament in Brazil.

After winning 3-1 in Crete in the first leg, Wiegman had identified areas for improvement ahead of the second leg and Russo believes England delivered with a performance in Leicester.

“Obviously, we were happy with the first game with getting the win but there were some things we wanted to work on, and I think we saw that tonight,” she said.

“We were ruthless early on, and it was nice for another couple more girls to get their debuts, too.

“It’s nice to get on the scoresheet as always. Nice to have two wins under our belt and now we’re going into the next round of games.”

There was further cause for celebration in the Lionesses camp as Lexi Potter and Freya Godfrey both made their senior debut.

Godfrey was introduced off the bench on the hour mark, while Potter was handed a start in midfield and might have capped a dream debut with a goal only for it to be ruled out for a foul in the build-up.

Russo has been particularly impressed with the Chelsea youngster during this camp and says she has proved she is ready for international football.

“She’s been brilliant,” added the Arsenal forward.

“In training, straight away you could tell she’s ready for this level.

“First and foremost, she’s a great kid, she wants to learn and I think she’s got the best in learning off Keira.

“That’s great and then she takes her moment tonight. She looks so confident, so composed and I’m very happy she’s an England player.”