Key events
Lauren James scores yet another belter. Le Tissier surged infield, to the edge of the D, and played a square pass that was diverted into the path of James by a stretching defender. James took a touch and swished a rising drive into the far corner with her left foot. Katergiannaki had no chance.
GOAL! England 2-0 Greece (agg: 5-1; James 16)
Pick that out!
14 min England enjoy their first extended spell of possession until Le Tissier wanders offside. As in the first leg on Friday, she’s almost playing as a right-winger when England have the ball.
12 min A through pass from James again releases Russo, this time on the right side of the area. Russo eschews the shot and slides a low cross that is cut out by a Greece defender. She was unselfish to a fault because that was an excellent scoring opportunity.
9 min Sarri chips a dangerous cross from the left that is punched away under pressure by Hampton. Greece’s front three have started very sharply.
7 min The goal aside – admittedly a pretty big aside – Greece have started well. They’re pressing England as much as possible, a brave but also risky approach.
4 min Papatheodorou almost replies straight away, sweeping a left-foot shot from the edge of the area that is pushed round the post by the diving Hampton. Good save.
GOAL! England 1-0 Greece (agg: 4-1; Russo 3)
Perfect start for England. Lauren James collects a loose ball in the centre circle, surges forward and flicks a perfectly timed pass through to Russo. She rides a challenge on the edge of the area and passes the ball confidently past Katergiannaki.
1 min England, in the shape of Alessia Russo, kick off from left to right as we watch.
Tom Garry
More than 22,000 tickets were issued for this match. It looks like scarcely half of that figure are here inside this stadium at the moment. The atmosphere is certainly livelier than it was in Crete on Friday, at least, and there was a very loud roar for Ella Toone when her name was read out among the list of substitutes, which was interesting.
There was a slight feel of England going through the motions on Friday – hopefully they will have a bit more zip and style about their game tonight, to entertain those who have turned up.
Sarina Wiegman’s pre-match thoughts
[On the debutant Lexi Potter] I hope she will bring what she has done for Chelsea and in our training sessions. She’s impressed me, the staff and the team. She’s a big talent.
[On the inclusion of Jess Carter] There’s a lot of competition in that position. We will probably be one v one a lot in defence, which is something she’s good at.
We want to be more ruthless, and that’s about having the positioning right, making the right decision and executing better than we did. That’s what we’ve been talking about a lot in the last couple of days.
Suzanne Wrack
It took a labyrinthine move from Sarina Wiegman’s team to find a way through deep-lying Greece. On the outskirts of Heraklion, the ancient city of Knossos, which is associated with the legend of the Minotaur and the labyrinth constructed by Daedalus to contain it, Laura Blindkilde Brown’s quick pass to Alessia Russo was artfully flicked first time to her Arsenal teammate Georgia Stanway and the midfielder slotted in past the goalkeeper Fafailia Petaloti.
There were muted celebrations after the goal, reflective of the frustration they felt at having taken 39 minutes to get their first goal against the team ranked 54 places below them.
That was a familiar frustration because, despite two Euros wins and a World Cup final, England have struggled to completely shake free of the accusation that they struggle against low blocks. In spite of the 3-1 scoreline and their dominance in possession, the Lionesses didn’t look comfortable or particularly happy for stretches of the match.
Tom Garry
England have two jobs to do tonight. The first, avoiding an almighty upset and progressing past Greece on aggregate in their Women’s World Cup playoff to reach a final tie, should be a formality for one of the world’s best-resourced teams. The second, honing their style to play like contenders for next summer’s World Cup in Brazil, is a far trickier but crucial challenge.
Friday’s relatively uninspiring 3-1 first-leg victory in Crete left room for improvement and England had plenty to work on as they trained at St George’s Park on Monday under gloomy-looking clouds. More broadly, over the next eight months, there are six questions facing the European champions.
1. Can England defend well enough to win a world title?
England had 58 touches in Greece’s box and turned that into three goals, whereas Greece had two touches in England’s box but managed to score and hit the crossbar. Sarina Wiegman said she was not happy her team had conceded. Their defending in June’s 4-0 defeat by Spain also left much to be desired, and it feels as if England are not yet certain about who should partner the captain, Leah Williamson, at centre-back. Wiegman mentioned on Monday that stopping counterattacks was something they must fix – they also struggled defending quick breaks in April 2025 when losing in Belgium. That year, they found a way to win the Euros but they must tighten up defensively if they want to win a first world title in the Maracanã in July.
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Japan have constantly pushed the boundaries in women’s football, whether it be with regular success in Asia or their ability to beat the biggest nations in the world.
Nadeshiko won the Women’s World Cup in 2011 and reached another final in 2015, while more established countries fell by the wayside. Japan have not replicated that success but did win the Women’s Asian Cup this year under the guidance of Nils Nielsen, who has since been succeeded by Michihisa Kano, and most of the biggest stars play outside the country, with 24 contracted to Women’s Super League clubs alone.
Japan are discreet about the secrets behind their success, particularly the easy-on-the-eye style that has become a trademark of the men’s and women’s teams, but one of those secrets lies in the Japanese Football Association (JFA) creating the JFA Academy.
There are three that take girls across the country of 123 million people: Fukushima, Sakai and Imabari. A fourth, Kumamoto Uki, is a boys’ academy only. Fukushima was the first to open, in 2006, with Sakai following in 2012 and Imabari in 2015.
Shota Mishio, an analyst for the national team when they conquered the world in 2011, recently coached in the Fukushima academy, which since the nuclear disaster that preceded their World Cup success by months has moved to Susono City. He offers an insight into how they are able not only to develop world-class individuals but to mould them into a successful unit for the national team.
Team news
Sarina Wiegman makes two changes from the first leg in Crete. Jess Carter and Lexi Potter replace Esme Morgan and Laura Blindkilde Brown. Potter is making her international debut.
Greece also make a couple of changes. Eleni Saich replaces Eleftheria Drakogiannaki and Stylian Katergiannaki is preferred in goal to Fafailia Petaloti.
England (4-3-3) Hampton; Le Tissier, Williamson, Carter, Greenwood; Stanway, Walsh, Potter; Hemp, Russo, James.
Subs: Keating, Charles, Moorhouse, Blindkilde Brown, Morgan, Fisk, Clinton, Mead, Parkinson, Godfrey, Toone.
Greece (4-3-3) Katergiannaki; Giannaka, Gkouni, Markou, Paterna; Brame, Saich, Moraitou; Papatheodorou, Sarri, Brouksair.
Subs: Giannakouli, Petaloti, Fakinou, Ntarzanou, Kapnisi, Chalatsogianni, Drakogiannaki, Tzourtzevits, Argyriou, Palama, Rapani, Kongouli.
Referee Rasa Grigone (Lithuania).
Preamble
Hello and welcome to live, minute-by-minute coverage of England v Greece at the King Power Stadium in Leicester. It should be a comfortable night for England, who lead 3-1 from Friday’s first leg in Crete, but the venue for tonight’s game is a reminder that the strangest things can happen in football. Greece are extremely long odds to shock England and win this World Cup playoff, but they’re not 5,000-1. Stranger things have most definitely happened.
The winners of this tie will meet Ukraine – who beat Slovakia 1-0 this afternoon to complete a 4-1 aggregate victory – in a decisive playoff. What England really want, aside from the bleedin’ obvious, is to improve on a mixed performance in the first leg. Sarina Wiegman was constructively critical after the game, saying that England weren’t tight enough and didn’t move the ball as quickly as she would have liked.
England know they need to play a lot better if they are to win the World Cup in Brazil next summer. First, they have to get there.
Kick-off 7.30pm BST.
