DASH BOARD GLANCE OF QUARTERFINAL.
1ST QF. SPAIN VS NETHERLANDS AT WELLINGTON STADIUM ON FRIDAY 11TH AUGUST AT 0200 HOURS.
2ND QF. JAPAN VS SWEDEN AT AUCKLAND ON 11TH AUGUST AT 0830 HOURS.
3RD QF. AUS/DEN VS FRA/MOR AT BRISBANE ON 12TH AUGUST.
4TH QF. ENG VS COL/JAM AT SYDNEY ON 12TH AUGUST.
European champions, Lionesses of England down with ten women sent out Africa’s most decorated team and eleven times African Champions, Super Falcons of Nigeria at the round of 16 matches played on Monday at the Lang Park Stadium in Brisbane via 4-2 penalty kicks in front of a tumultuous 49,500 crowd.
Stanway was the first to take the kicks and she played wide before Oparanozie who came as a sub and only played under 10 minutes at the world cup also shooting wide just like Alozie also lost her penalty kick (who lost two glaring chances in the actual play).
Ajibade and Ucheibe scored their kicks but then the scored kicks from B. England; Daly, Greenwood and Kelly and inflicted the hard wound on Nigeria that made Nigeria’s goalkeeper, Chiamaka lie on the turf mourning only for three English players to come comfort and lift up.
That leaves Morocco left for Africa with Nigeria and South Africa eliminated at the round of 16.
England will meet winner of Columbia versus Jamaica match at Stadium Australia on Saturday 12th August at 1130 hours in the 4th quarterfinal.
It was a match Nigeria should have wrapped up in the first half when she had much more of the exchange of the pressure to score but poor marksmanship and inability to make accurate passes made Nigeria fail
England lost a chance for a penalty kick when in the 31st minute Greenwood fired a free kick into the Nigerian territory and Daly fell on the turf like a bag of beans from Ajibade’s challenge. Ref was hesitant but still gave a penalty only for the VAR to overturn it in the 33rd minute that it was a good challenge.
Nigeria piled too much pressure on England in the second half which caused England to commit fouls but funnily got away with foul calls but England players were so frustrated that Chelsea and England star player, Lauren James was red carded in the 87th minute for her ill-tempered stamping of Alozie.
To get to the round of 16 stages, Nigeria played goalless with Canada on 21st July; defeated Australia 3-2 on 27th July and played a goalless draw with Ireland on 31st July.
England in their first match narrowly beat Haiti 1-0 on 22nd July; won against Denmark by the same margin on 28th July and on 1st August dazed China 6-1.
Both teams only met once at the world cup in Group C in 1995 and England won 3-2; England on 12th June 2002 played goalless with Nigeria. England won on 16th November 1994 1-0 and England won on 2nd June 2018 2-1.
Nigeria won one of their 14 encounters with European sides beating Denmark 2-0 in 1999 and drew 13. England won their two matches against African sides with three goals in each match.
England is in their 6th knockout stages. The country won two of their round of 16 matches, 2-1 against Norway in 2015 and 3-0 over Cameroon in 2019.
Asisat Oshoala started from the bench again. She seems not to have fully recovered from the knee injury she had during the European Women’s Champions League final but her coach said just before the match against England that she is fit to play.
Oshoala who is being propped up for Ballon D’oor meant for the best player in the world, scored 26 goals in all competitions before the 4th Spanish title with Barcelona FC. She did not have a shot on target against Canada and Ireland. She is the first African to score at three world cup tournaments.
Nigeria has appeared at the final tournament of the female world cup 9 times but her highest achievement was at USA 99 where she placed 7th in the world having lost at the quarter finals 3-4 to Brazil. She had made the round of 16, another knock-out stage at France 2019 where Germany knocked her out 3-0 on 22nd June of that year.
England was at the world cup six times and her best was a Bronze at Canada 2015 when she lost the semifinal 1-2 to Japan and beat France 1-0 in the 3rd place match. She had three quarterfinal appearances in Sweden 1995 when she was beaten by Germany 3-0; at China 2007 USA pounded England 3-0 and Germany came again while hosting in 2011 to beat England 4-3 on penalties when AET was 1-1.
Tomorrow Tuesday, Columbia will slug it out with the Reggae Girlz of Jamaica at 0900 hours at the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium with Australian Ref Katherine Margret Jacewicz in charge.
At 12 noon, it will be France versus African representative, Atlas Lionesses of Morocco at the Hindmarsh Stadium with Mexican Ref Ceser Palazuelos in charge.
Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line.
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