England will face Ukraine in the final round of the Women’s World Cup play-offs after overwhelming Greece 5-0 at the King Power Stadium to complete an 8-1 aggregate win.
Four goals inside the first half settled the tie in Leicester, with Sarina Wiegman’s side booking a meeting with Ukraine for a place at next year’s tournament.
The Lionesses had created plenty of chances in the 3-1 first-leg win in Crete last week, and Wiegman had wanted her side to be more clinical in the return.
Her players duly obliged.
Alessia Russo opened the scoring before Lauren James struck twice, either side of a Georgia Stanway header, to have the tie wrapped up by the half-time whistle.
Russo added her second after the break to finish the scoring.
Lexi Potter, a promising talent who has made an impressive start to the season, earned her first England cap, and she was denied a dream debut goal in the first period. It took just three minutes for England to breach the Greek defence. Russo latched on to James’ perfectly weighted pass and expertly dispatched.
The lead was doubled after 16 minutes, with Maya Le Tissier, who scored her first goal for England in the opening leg, this time turning creator for James, who arrowed into the far corner.
Hannah Hampton had little to do throughout the contest. She was forced into one save, getting down low to stop Eleni Saich from range.
Greece were simply unable to live with the hosts, who were making light work of the second leg.
A third arrived in the 34th minute as Lauren Hemp weaved her way into the box and picked out an unmarked Stanway, who nodded home.
England had a fourth when James ran onto Hemp’s cross and buried it first time from close range. Goals were disallowed either side of the break. Potter was denied a debut goal after a foul in the build-up by Stanway.
Stanway then had one ruled out three minutes after the break when a lengthy VAR check adjudged her to be in an offside position.
Greece held a second-half clean sheet until the 75th minute, when England made it five.
Keira Walsh picked out Russo, who rounded keeper Styliani Katergiannaki and slotted into an empty goal.
The Lionesses were showing no sign of letting up and almost had a sixth, but Katergiannaki did well to deny Freya Godfrey one-on-one.