Haiti’s 5’4 goalkeeper Kerly Theus makes incredible save to deny England’s Georgia Stanway’s penalty only for the spot-kick to be retaken and scored at the Women’s World Cup

Georgia Stanway scored England’s first goal at the Women’s World Cup in dramatic fashion after her re-taken penalty gave Sarina Wiegman’s side the lead over Haiti. 

The Bayern Munich midfielder netted a brilliant spot-kick at the second attempt after she her first spot-kick was saved in terrific fashion by Kerly Theus.

Stanway’s strike was the only goal of the game as the Lionesses picked up all three points in their opening game of the 2023 Women’s World Cup. 

However, the Haiti goalkeeper was off her line when making the save leading to the penalty being retaken and Stanway made no mistake as she tucked it into the net. 

The incident came midway through the first-half after a corner was floated to Lucy Bronze at the back post.

Georgia Stanway scored England’s opening goal of the World Cup from the spot at the second attemot

Stanway’s first attempt was successfully saved by Haiti’s 5’4 goalkeeper Kerly Theus 

Replays showed that the ball flicked the raised hand of Haiti midfielder Batcheba Louis.

The penalty was later awarded by VAR, with Stanway then tasked to score England’s first goal of the tournament.

However, her spot-kick was saved by the 5ft 4in keeper. Haiti’s celebrations were cut short after the referee ordered the penalty to be retaken and Stanway converted.

Speaking after the game, Stanway revealed that she was ‘tempted to change sides’ after her first penalty was saved. 

‘I was just focused on the ball, I was focused on the situation. You block out everything that’s around you. To be fair, the first one was a very, very good save. Credit for the save, but obviously she was off the line,’ she said.

[Tempted to change sides?] ‘A little bit, but you’ve got to be confident in your own strategy. It’s a process that I go through, and I just stuck to that.’

‘You have a really long build up. We’ve been on camp for five, six weeks. We’ve been here alone for two weeks. The first game settles the nerves, build momentum. It’s nice to get that World Cup feel after watching two days.’

Georgia Stanway revealed she was tempted to change sides after her first spot kick was saved by the Haiti keeper

The first half saw plenty of drama as England were denied a penalty early on in the game. 

Chloe Kelly appeared to be fouled in the box, but VAR ruled that there had been a foul before the Manchester City forward went down in the box.

Alessia Russo appeared to impede a Haiti defender in the box. Haiti were eventually awarded a free-kick, but the referee still booked Dayana Pierre-Louis after fouling Kelly. 

Lionesses boss Wiegman faced many tough calls for her starting eleven prior to the match, with the most interesting being the decision to start Arsenal’s Russo over Aston Villa’s Daly. 

England were denied a penalty early on as Chloe Kelly was fouled inside the box, but Alessia Russo appeared to foul a Haiti defender in the build-up

Speaking ahead of the game, Wiegman gave her reasons for starting Russo over Daly.

‘First of all, it was really hard. We have three good centre forwards in our squad. We have made very hard decisions over time,’ Wiegman said.

‘We had the preparation camps, and we had the games we played earlier this season. In the end, I came up with the decision. That’s why Alessia starts.’

‘That was really hard, they’ve both done very well. Bethany England too. You just make up your mind at the end. They gave us headaches.’