Nikita Parris Pulls Off Silky Smooth Skill In England Women's World Cup Opener

Nikita Parris showed off her skills as England opened their World Cup campaign with a 2-1 win over Scotland.

England Women kicked off their World Cup campaign against Scotland in Nice on Sunday afternoon as they began their attempt to exercise their demons from four years ago.

The Three Lionesses were favourites against their Auld rivals and showed their dominance in the first half. They took the lead through a Nikita Parris penalty, given controversially by handball, after just 14 minutes.

10 minutes later and Parris, who has just moved from Manchester City to Lyon, was back in the spotlight as she bamboozled Scotland's Nicola Docherty with a beautiful piece of skill:

England doubled their lead before half time through Ellen White with the 30 year old forward finishing off a team move with a lovely finish.

Phil Neville's side had a goal disallowed early in the second half through offside. Beth Mead scored from White's pull back but the City player had been offside in the build up.

Goalkeeper Lee Alexander did have a very good time in goal for Scotland but Shelly Kerr's team started coming back into the game.

Claire Emslie then gave the Scots a chance as she got inside England captain Steph Houghton and shot home to make it 2-1.

Despite added pressure in the final 10 minutes, Neville's side were able to hold onto their lead and take the three points.

After the match Neville clearly wasn't happy with his team as he seemed to give them the riot act on the pitch.

Speaking to BBC Sport the England manager said, "I was pleased with the result. The first game is always the most difficult. We set standards and the players have to keep meeting them.

"We cannot drop below those standards and if we do, we get performances like that second half. We have to be relentless.

"We want to be here for the next 27 days. I'm the biggest problem, I have to keep delivering those standards. It starts with me, we should have done better."

Emslie makes it 2-1. Image: PA Images

England next face Argentina on Friday and then finish their group fixtures against Japan on June 19th.

The Lionesses are off to the perfect start but they'll need to improve if they are to go further than their third place from four years ago.

Topics: Manchester City, Football News, Phil Neville, England, Women's Football, Lyon, Scotland

Ryan Sidle

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