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| Lauren Hemp of England scores the team's second goal during the UEFA Womens Nations League match between England and Scotland at Stadium of Light on September 22, 2023 in Sunderland, England. |
England have got their Nations League campaign off to a winning start with a 2-1 win against Scotland at the Stadium of Light.
Just over a month after their World Cup final defeat to Spain, the Lionesses earned an inaugural win in the competition after going ahead through former Black Cat Lucy Bronze.
Lauren Hemp doubled the lead before Scotland pulled one back just before the break through Kirsty Hanson.
The visitors had plenty of good opportunities to level in the second half but were unable to capitalise on their chances and were kept out by keeper Mary Earps.
Former Sunderland defender Bronze opened the scoring for the Lionesses after a great cross from Katie Zelem picked out the right-back, who made a perfectly timed run to head home.
They doubled the lead in the 45th minute after Rachel Daly picked out Hemp on the left for the Manchester City winger to head into the top corner.
Scotland pulled one back with the last kick of the half as England failed to clear their lines in the box and Hanson was able to poke a low cross into the bottom corner.
Scotland threatened but Earps was equal to Martha Thomas's header as the visitors looked the brighter of the two teams, but England were able to shut down the threat.
England manager Sarina Wiegman said it was a "very important" result.
"First of all I'm very happy with the three points, three very important points," she told a press conference.
"I think the first half we've played a lot better than the second half and scored two good goals.
"Overall we kept the win and that's the most important thing off the back of the World Cup and a very short turnaround where players haven't played any competitive games yet."
Scotland manager Pedro Martinez Losa said they were disappointed because they wanted to win.
"We wanted to come here to compete and play the football we wanted to play.
"I think Scotland was brilliant in many other moments ... we are not still happy, we will never be happy losing games but we want the ambition to win games.
"We had the feeling we could get something else in the game but now the only thing we can do is to take the positives, continue building to make sure we can recover and go again on Tuesday (against Belgium)."
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