A minute into the second half and disaster nearly struck for England, with their goalkeeper, Mary Earps, failing to get rid of Leah Williamson’s pass as Julia Hickelsberger-Füller bore down.
Earps’s eventual attempt to clear deflected off the forward but trickled wide of the post.
Earps would amend for her error with a double save around the hour mark, pushing aside Laura Feiersinger’s curling shot before hugging the ball to her chest from a close-range effort after the resulting corner.
If there had been any concern that England would lack the same spark off the bench, with Euros super-subs Ella Toone and Russo in the starting XI, then they were assuaged within eight minutes of Russo making way for Beth England and Mead leaving the field for Parris.
England played the ball back to Stanway and the Bayern Munich midfielder’s diagonal pass was collected by Parris who lashed the ball into the roof of the net past Manuela Zinsberger.
Victory means the pressure is off against Luxembourg on Tuesday night and ensures the Lionesses avoid a playoff and so their Wembley friendly against the world champions, the USA, on 7 October, which sold out in less than 24 hours, will go ahead as planned. Reports The Guardian.
