In the round of 16 of FIFA Women’s World Cup, England defeated Nigeria 4-2 on penalties after the scores were tied at 0-0 at the end of extra time in Brisbane on Monday.. England’s forward Lauren James received the red card in the 87th minute and was sent off the field. Playing with 10-women in the dying minutes of the match and also into extra time, England managed to send the game into penalty shootout.
In the 87th minute of the match, Lauren fouled against Nigeria’s Michelle Alozie. During the foul, Lauren stood briefly over a fallen Michelle. Lauren was initially shown the yellow card but after a review, match referee converted it to a red card and she was sent off the field.
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Both teams went neck-to-neck but the match ended in goalless draw even into extra time. Nigeria fired 20 shots with two on target while England shot 12 times with four of those on target.
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In the penalty shootout, both team started off badly as they couldn’t convert the first penalty. With Beth England’s shot, England secured the lead and maintained it till the end to win the match. The winning penalty for England was scored by Chloe Kelly.
“The first thing is we really stuck together as a team. 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 how the team just kept going, I’m so proud of them,” said England coach Sarina Wiegman as quoted by AFP.
“It says so much about this team. Not one game has been easy and we knew and knew before this game it will not be easy,” she added.
With the win, England have stormed into the quarterfinal of the tournament. England have been successful in reaching the quarterfinal stage at all six FIFA Women’s World Cup tournaments they have appeared in. In the quarterfinal, they will face the winner of the match between Colombia and Jamaica.
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