Lionesses fans insist England’s ‘shocking performance’ in 1-0 victory over Haiti has doomed their World Cup hopes… but others claim ‘a win is a win’ after Georgia Stanway’s penalty

England Lionesses fans have been vocal with their thoughts following their opening World Cup match against Haiti – both positively and negatively.

While Sarina Wiegman’s side won the match 1-0 courtesy of Georgia Stanway’s first-half retaken penalty, it was not a comfortable experience for the Euro 2022 winners. 

They are set to face sterner tests in Group D from their next opponents Denmark, as well as China – although the players and manager were happy to recognise that it was three points on the board in their opening match.

Some noted that while there were some strong performances – including big saves from keeper Mary Earps and solid defending from Jess Carter – the rest of the display left a lot to be desired.

One tweeted: ‘Shocking performance. Carter and Earps had a great 90 but…’

Georgia Stanway’s retaken penalty was the only goal in England’s 1-0 win over Haiti in Brisbane

Jess Carter (L) and Mary Earps (bottom) were hailed for their performances in narrow victory

Twitter users said England were ‘shocking’ and ‘wasteful’ during their first World Cup match

Another added: ‘Wasteful in attack and sloppy in defence; saved by quality goalkeeping. Haiti played well at times, we’ll need to wake up and freshen up for the next game. Main thing is the result though, and glad we won.’

A third admitted: ‘We didn’t play that well gonna be honest but at least we won that is main thing first game can always be tough.’

The importance of tournament football means that there is not always a need to get off to a quick start – England won the opening game of Euro 2022 1-0 against Austria, before going on to lift the trophy at Wembley in July, whilst men’s World Cup winners Argentina lost their first group stage game against Saudi Arabia last November – a fact quickly forgotten after Lionel Messi lifted the trophy. 

Some declared ‘a win is a win’, with England also winning their opening Euro 2022 match 1-0

One fan was happy to celebrate the victory – and continued with the praise for hero goalkeeper Earps.

‘A win is a win. Three points on the board to start us off and a completely different team and prospect to the Euros. Fantastic concentration levels from Earps!’ they enthused.

‘Congratulations #Lionesses for starting your World Cup campaign with a win!’ came another tweet.

Fans felt that the performance showed why Sarina Wiegman’s side would struggle to win it

Some however thought that the Haiti game was an example of England’s long-term problems, and it showed why they were not going to follow up last year’s European Championship glory with World Cup success.

One wrote: ‘Yeah we’re not winning the world cup after watching that, any decent team would have put 4 or 5 past us playing like that.’

‘Job not done , yes 3 pts, look awful. Lacklustre passes, Defensive all over the place, If this was a decent team, we would have lost today,’ another added. 

England’s World Cup campaign continues on Friday against European side Denmark, with China also in the same group.