December 01, (THEWILL) – On Tuesday night, Ellen White became England Women’s all-time leading goalscorer as the Lionesses thrashed Latvia 20-0 in the Women’s World Cup Qualifiers.
It was the team’s biggest win ever, surpassing their previous best of 13-0 against Hungary 16 years ago.
White only needed two goals to break Kelly Smith’s previous record of 46 goals, which she accomplished in just nine minutes. The 32-year-old then finished off her hat-trick at the start of the second half.
Lauren Hemp scored four goals, while Beth Mead and substitute Alessia Russo also had hat-tricks on the night.
In a historic fixture for the Lionesses, who were 8-0 ahead at halftime, goals came from a Beth England brace, Ella Toone, a Georgia Stanway penalty, Jess Carter, Jill Scott, and Jordan Nobbs.
England won their sixth game in a row in Group D, with 43 goals scored and none conceded in their first six games under Sarina Wiegman.
White remarked after breaking the goal-scoring record: “I actually feel really emotional about it. It’s been spoken about for a long time and I feel very proud. I feel really proud of the girls tonight, we’ve got so many girls who scored their first goal for England.”
Following her team’s 10-0 victory against Latvia in Riga last month, Wiegman expressed her desire for another “ruthless” performance from England in the build-up to this match, and that is exactly what she got.
On aggregate therefore, England finished with a 30-0 score over the two legs against Latvia in the qualifying series. They will face North Macedonia next in April when the series resumes. Meanwhile, Latvia will hope for better when they meet Luxembourg.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
