Women’s World Cup: England survive shoot-out scare to beat Nigeria
England are through to the Women’s World Cup quarter-finals by the skin of their teeth after a penalty-shootout win over Nigeria.
The Lionesses were second best throughout the match and were forced to play extra-time with 10 players after Lauren James was sent off.
Chelsea forward James stepped on Michelle Alozie’s back in the 87th minute and was shown the red card after a review by VAR.
After keeping the Nigeria attack at bay in extra-time, Chloe Kelly stepped up to fire her spot-kick into the top corner to win the shootout.
England will play either Colombia or Jamaica next. They meet in their second-round clash tomorrow.
Nigeria could have taken the lead on a number of occasions. Ashleigh Plumptre hit the crossbar early on before forcing a superb save from England goalkeeper Mary Earps 20 seconds later.
Uchenna Kanu then tested the Manchester United shotstopper before hitting the crossbar herself in the second half with a looping header.
England were awarded a penalty in the first half when Rachel Daly went down from Rasheedat Ajibade’s challenge, but the decision was overturned by VAR.
James red card goes unpunished
A moment of madness left England a player down going into extra-time when James’ petulant stamp on Alozie was upgraded to a red card after another VAR review.
The 21-year-old has led the line for England with some superb performances, including a brace and three assists against China, but could have cost the Lionesses their place in the tournament.
In the end though, England were thankful that Nigeria only got two of their 20 shots on target with the Lionesses defence holding firm to force a shootout.
Georgia Stanway fired wide with the opening penalty but Nigeria missed twice before Kelly smashed her spot-kick into the top-left corner to secure England’s place in the last eight.
“I don’t know what my heart rate is, I just know I’m 10 years’ older,” said England manager Sarina Wiegman.
“I was not worried. It was a really intense game. Nigeria has done really well in the group stages so we were not underestimating them at all and they showed what a good team they were.
“We had trouble getting out of their press. We could do a little better but I also think we should give them credit.”
Cover Photo: “three lions. home.” by William Brawley is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
