England scraped into the quarter-finals of the Women’s World Cup once they beat Nigeria 4-2 on penalties in Brisbane on Monday. Despite Nigeria having the higher of the probabilities, the European Champions — lowered to 10 gamers after 87 minutes — snuck dwelling in entrance of fifty,000 spectators after the match had completed 0-0 on the finish of additional time. England held on after playmaker Lauren James obtained a purple card for a useless stamp and can know they’ve to enhance in the event that they wish to add the World Cup to their European crown.

They will face Colombia or Jamaica on Saturday for a spot within the semi-finals.

England acquired off to a horrible begin within the penalty shootout when Georgia Stanway fired vast, however Desire Oparanozie could not take benefit and missed with an nearly equivalent effort.

Beth England made no mistake, however Nigeria’s Michelle Alozie shot manner over high to provide England a bonus they by no means surrendered, sealing the win when Chloe Kelly calmly transformed.

“The first thing is we really stuck together as a team,” stated England coach Sarina Wiegman.

“It was a very, very hard game, then we had a red card but we made it through extra-time and then won on penalties.

“How we did that, and the way the staff simply stored going, I’m so happy with them.”

“It says a lot about this staff. Not one sport has been simple and we knew and knew earlier than this sport it is not going to be simple.”

The Lionesses, who last year won the European Championship at a packed Wembley Stadium in London, were expected to win comfortably against the world’s 40th ranked team.

The Nigerians, however, have shown in this World Cup that they have the game to challenge anybody.

They stunned hosts Australia in the group stage, taking advantage of their speed in the transition to score a 3-2 win.

And they employed the same tactics against England, whose back three were regularly exposed by the Nigerian attack.

‘We were unlucky’

“They’re very organised, very transitional, very bodily and that is precisely what we noticed,” said Wiegman of Nigeria.

“But we made it by way of and I’m actually completely satisfied.”

Nigeria coach Randy Waldrum was happy with his facet.

“To are available right here and play the best way they did tonight, I although we had been each bit nearly as good (as England),” he said.

“We had each alternative to get the end result and sadly we did not get it completed.

“Obviously we didn’t execute on our penalties and when it gets to that point, it’s anyone’s game.

“We had the very best probabilities, we hit the crossbar twice in regulation play. We had been a bit unfortunate to not get one thing out of it.

“But credit to England, they are a great side.”

England began the match strongly and rattled Nigeria within the opening skirmishes because the Lionesses discovered loads of house out vast.

They additionally managed possession, finishing 173 passes within the first half to Nigeria’s 83.

But it was the Nigerians who appeared essentially the most harmful and so they gave the European champions an actual fright on plenty of events.

England-born Ashleigh Plumptre had two golden probabilities to open the scoring, the primary coming within the sixteenth minute when a strike from exterior the field crashed into the crossbar.

A minute later she pressured a nice diving save from Mary Earps.

The Nigerians had eight pictures at purpose within the first half, three greater than England, whose finest probability fell to Alessia Russo within the twenty third minute.

The second half adopted the identical sample, however England had a golden probability to seal the match with quarter-hour left just for Chiamaka Nnadozie to drag off a nice save from Rachel Daly’s highly effective header.

In extra-time, Nigeria once more appeared almost certainly, Michele Alozie and Oshoala each going shut, however neither staff might break the impasse.

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