John Arne Riise tears into ‘pathetic’ and ’embarrassing’ Norway for England thrashing | Football | Sport

England thumped six first-half goals past Norway to put one foot in the quarter-finals of Euro 2022 on a mightily impressive evening at the Amex Stadium, which left Liverpool hero John Arne Rise fuming.

It took only 12 minutes for Georgia Stanway to open the scoring as she blasted home from the penalty spots. Lauren Hemp added a second from close range. Ellen White and Beth Mead both bagged a brace before half-time to make it six for the hosts.

And Riise, who made 110 appearances for the Norway men’s team, blasted his compatriots at the break.

“This is the biggest game for a long time for Norway and we have seen this attitude, that’s why I think it is embarrassing and pathetic,” the BBC pundit said.

“The body language, the will to fight for your country, tactically all over the place, defending horrible.

“I was sitting in the stand at 2-0 and said ‘this could be ugly’ but this is unbelievably shocking to see how bad Norway were in the first half.”

He added: “When you see the players looking at the coaches bench asking who should pick (up) who, that means England is doing extremely well in positioning with and without the ball. Norway don’t know what to do without the ball.

“On England’s right side they’re killing Norway.

“I think it is more damage control. He needs to make a substitution and one of the centre-backs comes off and another comes in. They need to try to win the second half but this is embarrassing for the coach and I’m glad I’m not in that dressing room now.”

Fellow pundit Ian Wright said: “This is an unbelievable team that’s being well coached and full of confidence.