Women’s World Cup: England through as group winners after thrashing China
England progressed to the last 16 of the Women’s World Cup in style after a 6-1 win against China.
An inspired performance from Lauren James led England to the victory by netting twice and setting up three more.
The Chelsea forward set up Alessia Russo to open the scoring before finding Lauren Hemp to make it two.
James got in on the act herself before half time when she curled the ball in from 20 yards at a set-piece.
She hit the back of the net again with an even better effort but the goal was ruled out by VAR due to a Lucy Bronze offside.
China did hit back just before the hour mark when they were awarded a penalty for a Bronze handball. Shuang Wang stepped up to place the ball past Mary Earps.
James did get her second shortly after though, and it was another goal of the highest quality. This time, a looping Jess Carter cross found James who volleyed the ball over goalkeeper Yu Zhu into the far corner.
Chloe Kelly then took advantage of a goalkeeping error which left herself with a simple finish into an empty net, and Rachel Daly completed the scoring by volleying in after the Chinese defence failed to deal with a cross.
England had gone into the match with questions over their performances so far. Despite progressing from the group with a 100% record, single-goal wins over Haiti and Denmark had suggested that they could struggle against tougher opposition.
The Lionesses are yet to meet a team in the top 10 of the world rankings but six goals and a complete performance has set them up perfectly.
They now face 40th-ranked Nigeria in the round of 16 on Monday.
“We’re really growing into the tournament now,” said captain Millie Bright.
“We got a lot of criticism in the first two games but we were not concerned at all.
“It’s unbelievable to be in the same team as [the youngsters]. It feels ridiculous and I’m quite proud. Players feeling like they can express themselves on the pitch is what we want.”
Cover Photo: “three lions. home.” by William Brawley is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
