The Three Lions looked to face an uphill battle against one of the tournament’s dark horses, who were fresh from brushing Northern Ireland aside in a 4-1 win, when they made the trip down south to the Amex Stadium.

However, you wouldn’t have known that was the case when you saw Sarina Wiegman’s team race romp to a victory that was so breath-taking, so head-spinning and so mind-blowing that it made Euros history.

England’s extraordinary start

Just one night after France put on a masterclass against Italy by racing into a 5-0 lead at the break, England decided to up their continental neighbours by establishing a 6-0 advantage – yes, that’s not a typo – after 45 minutes.

And England wasted no time at all in getting their historic rout underway with Ellen White winning an early penalty, which Georgia Stanway, 23, dispatched with an emphatic strike into the top left corner.

From that point onwards, the Lionesses simply didn’t look back with Lauren Hemp bundling the ball home just two minutes later, surviving an early offside scare with VAR eventually coming to England’s rescue.

White then silenced her doubters by getting in on the act with a cool, calm and collected one-on-one finish, before Beth Mead got her own masterclass started by heading past Guro Pettersen.

Wright goes wild for Mead’s masterclass

At this point, the whole country and footballing world in general was understandably losing their minds, but there was still more to come as White and Mead decided to double their personal tallies before the first-half was over.

And Mead’s brace was particularly eye-catching as she left the Norwegian defence tangled up in their own legs, showing icy composure in the penalty area to crown off a stunning individual performance.

It’s no wonder, therefore, that Mead’s Arsenal comrade Ian Wright was absolutely loving what he was seeing from the BBC Sport studio, expressing his admiration for her masterclass with a brilliant Twitter video:

You could just tell that Wright was loving both Mead and England’s performance.

The biggest win in Euros history

But there was still more for Wright to celebrate after the break as yet another strike from England, headed home by Alessia Russo, ensured that it was a truly record-breaking night in Brighton.

That’s because the Manchester United star making it 7-0 ensured that it was the biggest win in Euros history across both the men’s and women’s iterations of the tournament.

And then, just for good measure, Wright’s hero locked in the record by making it EIGHT for England by notching a hat-trick that will reverberate through the women’s game for years to come.

The previous record-breaking victory had also been set by England, who romped their way to a 6-0 win over Scotland at Euro 2017, while there had been five men’s games won by a five-goal margin. Check out the full list below:

Five-goal margin

Men’s

2000 quarter-final: Netherlands 6-1 Yugoslavia

1984 group stage: Denmark 5-0 Yugoslavia

1984 group stage: France 5-0 Belgium

2004 group stage: Sweden 5-0 Bulgaria

2021 group stage: Slovakia 0-5 Spain

Women’s

2013 group stage: Finland 0-5 Sweden (Gothenburg)

2001 group stage: Germany 5-0 Russia (Erfurt)

1997 group stage: Denmark 0-5 Norway (Lillestrom)

Six-goal margin

Women’s

2017 group stage: England 6-0 Scotland

Eight-goal margin

Women’s

2022 group stage: England 8-0 Norway

However, for all the records broken and history made, there’s no denying that the evening was all about England’s hat-trick hero herself.

FotMob statistics

It was a near-faultless performance from Mead, who achieved the highest FotMob rating of any player on the pitch with a 9.77.

The skilful winger continued her remarkable goal-scoring form for the Lionesses, netting a hat-trick as Wiegman’s side ran riot at the Amex Stadium.

Mead also created four chances and completed 40 per cent of her attempted dribbles. While Mead was England’s stand-out player, there were a plethora of other outstanding individual displays.

White scored twice to move within one goal of Wayne Rooney’s all-time England goal-scoring record.

She achieved a FotMob rating of 8.99 –– an impressive display from a player that was a doubt to start the match on the night.

Though it was the Lionesses’ attackers that will earn the most plaudits, credit should also go to England’s defence, who shut out the world-class duo of Ada Hegerberg and Caroline Graham-Hansen superbly.

Lucy Bronze was England’s highest-rated defender, with a FotMob rating of 8.55. Bronze created five chances and had a pass completion rate of 90 per cent.

Elsewhere, Rachel Daly, Millie Bright and Leah Williamson all scored a FotMob rating of above 7.

Euro 2022: England set amazing record with 8-0 win as Ian Wright heralds Arsenal star

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