Norway 4 Northern Ireland 1

UEFA Women's Euros 2022 Group A, Thursday 7th July

Thursday night saw me down on the South Coast as I attended my first of two Women's Euros 2022 contests and saw Norway record an expected win against an heroic Northern Ireland side who at times more than matched their more illustrious opponents in an epic atmosphere at St Marys.

It was an historic evening for the Green and White Army who were making their first ever appearance in a major finals after beating all the odds to qualify for these championships, they only became full time in January incredibly and are ranked 47th in the world, by far the lowest of all the teams in this tournament, so just to be here was an incredible achievement.

Their opponents in contrast are two time winners of the competition and four time runners up too, and Norway have been mentioned as dark horses for the tournament, such is their talent within their squad, and they put in a clinical first-half showing, which highlighted the gap between a world-class outfit and a Northern Ireland team who were still finding their feet so to speak.

It only took the Norwegians ten minutes to get in front when Julie Blakstad was given all the space in the world on the left to stride in and fire inside the near post, and then just three minutes later a mistake at the back allowed the ball to be squared to Frida Maanum who had the simple task of side footing home, and at that point with less than fifteen minutes on the clock, you feared this could get messy for the GAWA.

Norway continued to dominate the opening half and were awarded a penalty after VAR deemed, along with the referee who went over to the screen, that a handball had been committed inside the box, and Caroline Graham Hansen struck home the spot kick, and Norway held a commanding 3-0 lead at the break.

The fear was that Northern Ireland would tire as the second half went on and Norway would go on and net a few more goals, but that never happened, which was a testament to the underdogs, and they started the second half brilliantly and managed to get the biggest cheer of the night when Julie Nelson made history for Northern Ireland as she became the first goalscorer for her country on the European stage when her header crept over the line four minutes into the second period to give Kenny Shiels' side hope.

It was fitting that Nelson was the player to have that moment, as the 37-year-old defender was one of the original players when Northern Ireland's senior women's team reformed in 2004 after being disbanded at the turn of the century, so you could say it was written in the stars, it was certainly a feel good moment that sent the very noisy GAWA support wild, they were going to enjoy this evening no matter what.

It didn't take Norway to long to restore their three goal cushion though, as Guro Reiten curled home a low free-kick five minutes later and round out what, ultimately, was a comfortable Group A victory for the Scandinavian country.

A superb night though, a wonderful atmosphere, and a night were both countries could be happy with what they had seen, all good, and I cannot wait for my second and final game in these Euros a week on Saturday when Spain take on Denmark in Brentford's Community Stadium, that could be some game!!! Bring it on...

Full time Norway 4 Northern Ireland 1