Women's EURO 2022: Northern Ireland vs England match facts, stats, ones to watch

Northern Ireland vs England: Head-to-head

• Northern Ireland will be aiming to make history against England in the final round of Group A matches at UEFA Women's EURO 2022, with the Lionesses having had the upper hand in the sides' previous meetings.
• Defeats by Norway (1-4) and Austria (0-2) mean tournament debutants Northern Ireland can no longer reach the quarter-finals, whilst England booked top spot in the section with a game to spare thanks to victories against Austria (1-0) and Norway (8-0), the latter a EURO finals record win.
• England have won all of their ten previous encounters with Northern Ireland, scoring 54 goals and conceding just two.
• The nations are meeting for the third time inside a year having also been paired together in qualifying for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup.
• England's 5-0 victory in Belfast on 12 April, in front of a crowd of 15,348 – a record attendance for an international in Northern Ireland – left the Lionesses on the verge of qualification from Group D and ended the hosts' hopes of a place at the 2023 tournament in Australia and New Zealand. Lauren Hemp scored in each half (26, 60), with Ella Toone (52) and Georgia Stanway (70, 79) also on target after the break.
• The Lionesses ran out 4-0 winners at Wembley Stadium on 23 October thanks to four second-half goals, including a 14-minute hat-trick from substitute Beth Mead (64, 74, 78). Fellow replacement Bethany England (72) got the other goal.
• The teams are facing each other for the fourth time in just under 17 months, having also met in a friendly in Burton-on-Trent in February 2021. England, under interim boss Hege Riise, were 6-0 victors thanks to Ellen White's hat-trick (18, 23, 49) and further strikes from Lucy Bronze (29) and Rachel Daly (67) before Ella Toone's 75th-minute penalty.
• The Lionesses have scored 15 goals in their last three fixtures with Northern Ireland.
• The February 2021 meeting was a first encounter between these sides in almost 13 years, since EURO 2009 qualifying. The sides began that group campaign in May 2007 in Gillingham, where the Lionesses won 4-0 before 1 2-0 victory in Lurgan in March 2008.
• England have kept a clean sheet in their last seven fixtures against the Green and White Army, since an 8-1 win in Antrim in May 1985, in a EURO 1987 qualifier.
• That was Northern Ireland's only goal in their last nine matches against England, since a 7-1 EURO 1984 qualifying defeat in Crewe in September 1982.
• Northern Ireland reached their first major tournament with a 4-1 aggregate play-off victory against Ukraine in April 2021 (2-1 a, 2-0 h) having finished as runners-up to Norway in their section by virtue of a superior head-to-head record against Wales.
• England are aiming to become the third nation to win EURO on home soil since the group stage was introduced in 1997, after Germany (2001) and, last time out, the Netherlands under Sarina Wiegman.
• The Lionesses, who were eliminated in the last four of EURO 2017 by Wiegman's Netherlands, The Lionesses, who were eliminated in the last four of EURO 2017 by Wiegman's Netherlands, have reached the knockout rounds for the third time in their last six EURO appearances. One of those group stage eliminations came as hosts in 2005.
• England have twice been beaten EURO finalists, losing a penalty shoot-out following a two-legged tie against Sweden in the inaugural tournament in 1984 before Hope Powell's team suffered an emphatic 6-2 defeat at the hands of Germany in the 2009 edition.
• England became the first side to score seven or more goals in a match at a senior women's or men's EURO with their emphatic Matchday 2 defeat of Norway.
• The Lionesses inflicted Norway's biggest ever defeat with that 8-0 Matchday 2 success, surpassing the 7-0 loss at the hands of Wiegman's Netherlands in June 2021.
• White's two goals against Norway took her international tally to 52; she is one behind Wayne Rooney's all-time England goalscoring record.
• Mead's hat-trick against Norway was only the Lionesses' second at Women's EURO, after Jodie Taylor in the 6-0 defeat of Scotland in 2017.
• The Lionesses' next goal will be their 50th at the EURO finals; they will be the fourth side to reach that landmark, after Germany, Sweden and Norway.
• Mead's four goals at this tournament have extended her Lionesses record one-season goal tally to 18.
• Mead's goals at EURO 2022 have taken her joint second in England's all-time leading scorers at the tournament, level with Eni Aluko and one behind Taylor.
• England's two Group A victories have taken their winning streak to eight games, one short of their all-time record of nine set between November 1972 and April 1975.
• The Lionesses have now recorded five EURO group victories in a row, scoring 19 goals and conceding just one; they had managed just two wins in the previous 12.
• England won all three group games at EURO 2017, the first time they had opened the finals with three victories.
• Their EURO 2022 group campaign has increased England's best-ever unbeaten run to 16 games, all under Wiegman (W14 D2); they have scored 93 goals in that time, conceding just three.
• The 8-0 Matchday 2 win against Norway was the sixth occasion the Lionesses have scored at least eight goals in Wiegman's 16 matches in charge. They have kept 13 clean sheets in those 16 games.
• Including her spell in charge of the Netherlands, Wiegman has won all eight EURO games as a head coach.
• Northern Ireland's 2-0 Matchday 2 defeat by Austria was their sixth in succession across all competitions.
• That made Northern Ireland the seventh side to suffer a defeat in their first two EURO matches, and first since Scotland in 2017.
• Defender Julie Nelson made tournament history with her 49th-minute header for Northern Ireland against Norway on Matchday 1, becoming the oldest scorer at a Women's EURO aged 37 years 33 days.

Ones to watch: Northern Ireland

Jackie Burns

• The 25-year-old has featured in every minute of Northern Ireland's 2023 World Cup qualifying campaign so far, the only player to do so.
• The goalkeeper made her international debut aged 16 in a friendly defeat against the Netherlands in July 2013.
• Burns joined Swedish outfit BK Häcken from Glentoran in March this year, having also had spells in the United States college system and in Iceland with ÍBV Vestmannaeyjar.
• She helped Glentoran win the 2020 Women's Premiership title before returning to the US the following season to continue her studies.

Rachel Furness

• The 34-year-old provided the assist for Julie Nelson's header against Norway on Matchday 1, Northern Ireland's first goal at a major tournament.
• Furness has struck seven goals in the 2023 World Cup qualification campaign, including a hat-trick in the 11-0 win away to North Macedonia in Skopje on 25 November.
• The midfielder surpassed David Healy's national scoring record four days after hitting that treble, taking her total to 38 goals with a double against North Macedonia.
• The Liverpool player was Northern Ireland's leading scorer in qualifying for EURO 2022 with five goals, including a fifth-minute opener in the 2-1 first-leg play-off victory in Ukraine.

Lauren Wade

• The 28-year-old struck Northern Ireland's equaliser with a powerful effort from outside the box in the eventual 4-1 friendly loss to Belgium on 23 June.
• The forward's only goals in EURO 2022 qualifying came in a 6-0 away victory against the Faroe Islands in September 2020, Wade scoring twice.
• Wade featured in all of Northern Ireland's eight group stage matches in qualifying for EURO 2022, but was forced to sit out both legs of the play-off victory against Ukraine with an ankle injury.
• The all-action attacker has started all eight of Northern Ireland's matches in the preliminaries for the 2023 World Cup, scoring three times.

Ones to watch: England

Lauren Hemp

• The 21-year-old scored twice in the win against Northern Ireland on 12 April to take her tally in the 2023 World Cup qualifying campaign to six.
• The attacker struck her first goals for the Lionesses when hitting four in the 20-0 victory against Latvia on 30 November.
• Hemp is one of four England players to have started all eight of their preliminaries ahead of the 2023 World Cup, along with Millie Bright, Ella Toone and Ellen White.
• The winger finished 2021/22 as Manchester City's leading scorer with 21 goals in all competitions.

Beth Mead

• The 27-year-old became the first woman to score a hat-trick for England at Wembley in the 4-0 victory against Northern Ireland on 23 October.
• That treble came in the space of 14 minutes, Mead having come on as a substitute seconds prior to scoring the 64th-minute opener.
• Mead has since struck a further two hat-tricks in 2023 World Cup qualifying and has 12 goals in the campaign, fewer only than Belgium's Tessa Wullaert (15).
• The Arsenal winger also hit two goals in the 5-1 friendly success against EURO 2017 champions the Netherlands on 24 June.

Ellen White

• The 33-year-old hit her first Lionesses hat-trick in the 6-0 friendly win against Northern Ireland in February 2021.
• The forward surpassed Kelly Smith's national record of 46 goals with a treble in the Women's World Cup qualifying victory against Latvia in November.
• White struck six goals at the 2019 World Cup to earn the Bronze Boot, only missing out on the top scorer award due to fewer assists.
• The attacker helped Manchester City lift the 2021/22 FA Women's League Cup, scoring in the 3-1 final win against Chelsea on 5 March.