Sport
England v Denmark preview: Denmark a Harder challenge for Lionesses
England already have one win under their belt at this year’s Women’s World Cup and find themselves joint top of the group with Denmark, whom they will take on at 09:30 on Friday. Millie Bright and co will be eyeing up back-to-back wins to take the number one spot in Group D.
We preview the fixture below.
England must find scoring boots
England kicked off their Women’s World Cup campaign with a 1-0 win against Haiti on Saturday, but it was not as dominant a win as many would have expected.
Despite many of England’s star players being unavailable for the tournament due to injury, people still expecting the Lionesses to thrash Haiti, and although they managed to have 75% of the possession, along with 21 shots to Haiti’s seven, they only managed to find the back of the net once via a retaken penalty from Georgia Stanway.
Denmark will prove to be a much tougher test than Haiti and England will need to convert their chances if they are to come away with a positive result on Friday morning. England are 3/10 favourites to come away with the win, odds which look to be based more on reputation than current form.
Arsenal’s new star striker Alessia Russo will likely lead the line and her teammates will be relying on her to find the back of the net at 9/5. England did show good defensive resolve against Haiti and with captain Millie Bright marshalling the defensive line they are 6/10 to keep a clean sheet against Denmark.
Chelsea star to shine for Denmark
Denmark were certainly not amongst the initial favourites to win the tournament but their 1-0 win over China in their first group game sees them sit top of Group D, albeit because D comes before E in the alphabet.
Denmark weren’t as dominant as they would have hoped to be against China, only managing a 1-0 win with the winner coming in the 89th minute via a 16-yard header which found its way into the net past some suspect goalkeeping.
Denmark were on top statistically but it wasn’t a rout as they kept 56% possession and took 13 shots to China’s nine, but it was enough to see them over the line in the end.
They head into this fixture at a backable price of 15/2, given the firepower they possess up top in Chelsea Women’s star Pernille Harder, who is 4/1 favourite to get on the scoresheet for her side.
It is expected to be a close fought match and Denmark actually become clear favourites at 11/20 with England subject to a -2 match goal handicap. Both teams have struggled to score so far and odds of 7/4 for under 1.5 match goals could provide could value.
