England 20–0 Latvia

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	England	5	5	0	0	33	0	+33	15	2023 FIFA Women's World Cup
2	Northern Ireland	6	4	1	1	30	6	+24	13	Play-offs
3	Austria	5	3	1	1	21	4	+17	10
4	Luxembourg	4	1	0	3	3	21	−18	3[lower-alpha 1]
5	North Macedonia (Y)	6	1	0	5	6	38	−32	3[lower-alpha 1]
6	Latvia (Y)	4	0	0	4	2	26	−24	0

UEFA Group D qualification table prior to the match.

England entered the match following a 1–0 home win at the Stadium of Light against Austria, marking five wins from five games in which they scored 33 goals and kept clean sheets in all matches. Latvia meanwhile had yet to gain a single point in the group, conceding 26 goals in the process and scoring only two goals. Ten of those conceded goals came in the reverse fixture on 26 October 2021, where goals from White, Bright, Mead, Williamson, Stanway, a brace from Daly, and a hat-trick from Toone gave England their second 10–0 win of the qualification campaign. England entered the match eighth in the FIFA Women's World Rankings, with Latvia ranked 94 places lower in 102nd.[4]

Understrength Latvia arrived without several experienced regulars including Miksone, Ročāne, Fedotova and Vaivode; all unavailable for various reasons.[10] It was reported that the scheduling of the match, 21:00 Eastern European Time on a Tuesday evening, made it difficult for the Latvian players who had jobs outside football to get time off work.[11] While team captain and five-time Latvian Footballer of the Year Ševcova, a mother, was ruled out due to "family circumstances".[12]

Latvia named nine uncapped players in the squad, and several other youngsters with very limited experience at senior international level. To bolster his youthful team coach Romāns Kvačovs called-up Anna Gornell, an American-born professional with Sundsvalls DFF of the Swedish second tier Elitettan, who was eligible due to her Latvian heritage.[13]

Doncaster Rovers FC, the leaseholders of Keepmoat Stadium, reported an attendance of 12,272.[14] However the early kick-off coincided with rush hour traffic congestion in Doncaster, causing many disappointed supporters to be delayed or absent. The official attendance was announced as 10,402.[15]

In his post-match comments, coach Kvačovs praised his players' application in adversity. He emphasised the disparity between his inexperienced amateurs and the full-time professionals of England: "We have never had such an opponent. The English national team is playing really fantastic, but the Latvian national team is currently undergoing a generational change. The average age of the players in the team is 20 years."[17] A parent of one of the young debutantes posted on TheGuardian.com to lament the Latvians' "unnecessary humiliation", remarking: "there is something not quite wholesome about this whole business".[18]

Although she had instructed her players to be "ruthless" in the match, England coach Wiegman admitted afterwards that such unbalanced matches were bad for the overall development of women's football: "Of course you want competitive games and these are not competitive games".[19] She would later, following England's Euro 2022 win and qualifying for the World Cup, say of the Latvia match that changes need to be made in order to develop women's football, that "A big score is sometimes OK but when it happens all the time you have to question if that is good for the team that wins or loses. It should be the exception and not the rule." She did not propose specific changes, admitting it was not her area, but said there were already suggestions at UEFA and with other confederations.[20]

This result and their run of other heavy defeats meant that Latvia dropped 10 places to their lowest ever position of 112th when the updated FIFA Women's World Rankings were released on 10 December 2021. England remained in eighth place.[21]

England ultimately ended the qualification campaign top of the group, qualifying for the World Cup with one game to spare.[22] The Lionesses won all ten matches, scoring 80 goals while not conceding a single goal.[23] Latvia finished bottom of six teams with one win and nine defeats, scoring eight goals and conceding 63 goals. Their lone win was a 1–0 victory at home to Luxembourg on 24 June 2022.[24] In total, 19 of the 236 matches played during the group stage of UEFA's 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification ended in double-figure margins of victory, 5 of them England's.

• Federated States of Micronesia national under-23 football team, who conceded an average of 38 goals a game without scoring themselves at the 2015 Pacific Games
• Arbroath 36–0 Bon Accord
• Australia 31–0 American Samoa
• Running up the score

• Match highlights at YouTube