England can use raucous home crowd to ‘rattle’ Women’s Euro 2020 rivals, says Georgia Stanway

England Women midfielder Georgia Stanway believes the Lionesses can use the home crowd to “rattle” opponents during the Euros.

England kicked off their home Euro 2022 campaign with a win against Austria at Old Trafford, with Beth Mead scoring the only goal of the game in the first-half.

The match was played in front of a record crowd for a women’s Euros of 68,741 and head coach Sarina Wiegman said she was lost for words at the atmosphere.

England have sold out all their group games during the tournament and Stanway thinks the Lionesses can use it as a weapon.

“I think the noise,” she said, when asked about the best thing of England’s win over Austria.

“I think, although it was hard to hear information, it was hard to hear from the sideline, it was hard to hear Keira shouting at me from behind.

“I think that (the noise) just shows where we are at. That’s the standard, that’s the standard the fans have set. We need that at every single game. Bring the noise and it can rattle opposition.

“I think we need to try and delay Sweet Caroline next time, because everyone gets a little too excited!”

Wiegman was happy to get the win and England now lead Group A, but knows the team can improve.

“It was incredible. It was unbelievable. Playing here at Old Trafford in front of 68,000 fans,” said Wiegman.

“We had lots of noise standing behind us. I hope they keep coming and they will because we’ve sold the tickets.

“We were a little rushed in the final third. We created a lot of chances but that final touch… We can do better.

“We kept them to 1-0 which was good and we got three points. We lost the ball too quick. They wanted to push for a goal so pressed and they really had to keep the ball. We didn’t do that well enough. We were calm in the final minutes and kept the ball longer.”