England beat Nigeria on penalties Monday to scrape into the quarter-finals of the Women’s World Cup after taking part in the entire of extra-time with solely 10 gamers.
Nigeria had the higher of the possibilities, however the European Champions held out for a 0-0 draw after 120 minutes and prevailed 4-2 within the shootout in entrance of virtually 50,000 spectators in Brisbane.
Playmaker Lauren James, the two-goal hero within the 6-1 win towards China, obtained a purple card for violent conduct after a useless stamp on Michelle Alozie on 87 minutes.
She can be suspended when the Lionesses face Colombia or Jamaica on Saturday for a spot within the semi-finals as they intention so as to add the World Cup to their European crown.
Nigeria supervisor Randy Waldrum stated his facet had proven their inexperience after James went off.
“We created more chances against 11 players than we did against 10,” Waldrum stated.
“It goes down to experience, I don’t think our players handled it very well.
“But credit score to England, they have been very properly organised and ready for it.”
England got off to a terrible start in the penalty shootout when Georgia Stanway fired wide, but Desire Oparanozie could not take advantage and missed in identical fashion.
Beth England made no mistake, but Alozie ballooned her effort high over the bar to give England an advantage they never surrendered, sealing victory when Chloe Kelly — who scored the winner in the final of the European Championship a year ago — calmly converted.
England coach Sarina Wiegman said her team had practised and were prepared for the shootout.
“We have skilled for penalties, we had a plan labored out,” she said.
“But on the finish it is the gamers who make the selections as to who desires to take the penalties.
“We know how to do it, and we have the experience.”
– Resilient England –
Wiegman stated the crew had proven resilience towards an impressive Nigeria, particularly after going a participant down.
“The first thing is we really stuck together as a team,” she stated.
“How we did that, and how the team just kept going, I’m so proud of them.”
The Lionesses have been anticipated to win comfortably towards the world’s fortieth ranked crew.
The Nigerians, nevertheless, have proven on this World Cup that they’ve the sport to problem anyone.
They shocked hosts Australia within the group stage, making the most of their velocity within the transition to attain a 3-2 win.
And they employed the identical ways towards England, whose back-three have been frequently uncovered.
“They’re very organised, very transitional, very physical and that’s exactly what we saw,” stated Wiegman of Nigeria.
“But we made it through and I’m really happy.”
Waldrum was happy with his facet.
“To come in here and play the way they did tonight, I thought we were every bit as good (as England),” he stated.
“We had every opportunity to get the result and unfortunately we didn’t get it done.
“Obviously we did not execute on our penalties and when it will get to that time, it is anybody’s recreation.
“We had the best chances, we hit the crossbar twice in regulation play. We were a bit unlucky not to get something out of it.”
England began the match strongly and had extra possession nevertheless it was the Nigerians who regarded probably the most harmful.
England-born Ashleigh Plumptre had two golden possibilities to open the scoring, the primary coming within the sixteenth minute when a strike from outdoors the field crashed into the crossbar.
A minute later she pressured a advantageous diving save from England goalkeeper Mary Earps.
The second half adopted the identical sample, however England had a golden likelihood to seal the match with quarter-hour left just for Chiamaka Nnadozie to drag off a advantageous save from Rachel Daly’s highly effective header.
Source web site: www.hindustantimes.com
