Group A: Austria And Norway

The other half of Group A, and the tournament’s first genuine surprise. Austria’s resilience against England at Old Trafford, where they conceded their only group-stage goal, proved to be no fluke: Irene Fuhrmann’s side beat Northern Ireland and then took the decisive meeting with Norway through striker Nicole Billa. The singing and dancing that carried from the pitch into the press conference, portable speaker in tow just as in 2017, is contrasted with the shock among the fancied Norwegians, whose 4-1 opening win over Northern Ireland proved the only real sighting of a much-lauded forward line. Captain Viktoria Schnaderbeck describes simply enjoying the anthem; Ada Hegerberg, after a second successive group-stage exit, calls for brutal honesty in evaluating everything that had happened.