With the world cup last 16 well under way Can England Women go all the way to the final now after beating a strong and sturdy Nigeria Women’s side?
A battling and gritty performance by England women after losing Lauren James for an idiotic stamp at the end of the second half.
Battling through two halves of extra time with only 10 players and not only that then going on to win on penalties shows that England Women have the winning qualities to get the job done regardless of how they do it.
Winning their first world cup penalty shootout England’s ladies will have a boosted confidence going into the final 8 where they could be playing either Colombia or Jamaica.
Lauren James will possibly miss all of the remaining games for England after getting her red card which gives a 3-game ban, if she is lucky she may get to feature in the final but after her hasty decision, it’s more than likely going to be via the subs bench.
Jamaica is a well-put-together side that plays like a team and will also be tough opponents should they be able to get past a tough Colombia side, no fixture is going to be easy going forward from here.
Colombia would probably be the better of the two teams to face in the next round for England who play best on the front foot against teams that like to attack also.
England’s defence has stood an epic test today against Nigeria doing what needed to be done and digging in deep when they lost a player, they have only conceded one goal which came against the match versus China but they were already 6-0 up so we can allow them the luxury of switching off somewhat.
England goes into the final 8 being firm favourites with the bookmakers at odds of 2/1 or less now after today’s victory along with many football tipsters who will be putting them up as finalists, and we firmly fancy England to make it all the way to the women’s World Cup Final and possibly take on Japan Women which would be an excellent game to behold.
We await further team news and injury updates going forward after today’s fixture but we should be able to field another full-strength squad in the next round, though James will be missed someone else can easily fill her place going forward.
Bethany England could well be called upon to take her place in the starting lineup after coming off the bench late on in the Nigeria game, and she has the qualities we need in the middle of the field to hold up the ball and get forward when we need to.
England Women’s Possible Route to the Final
With Colombia and Jamaica still to play we don’t know which of the two England will face in the final 8 but we can work out who they may get after this.
Round of 16 – Monday, August 7 (8.30 am)
England vs Nigeria – Brisbane
Quarter-finals – Saturday, August 12 (11.30 am)
England vs Colombia/Jamaica – Sydney
Semi-finals – Wednesday, August 16 (11 am)
England vs Australia/Denmark/France/Morocco – Sydney
Final – Sunday, August 20 (11 am)
England vs Spain/Netherlands/Japan/Norway/Sweden/ – Sydney
As you can see there are many combinations if we can get through our matches, and like we said our potential final we think will be England Vs Japan who has been incredible going through this competition with style, and will be no pushovers.
England Women World Cup Finalists? Conclusion
We think England Women can go all the way to the final and are great value at 2/1 to win the whole competition after today’s display against a solid Nigeria side that really should have beaten us.
But it’s not if you win it’s how you win that counts and England knows how to win and will want to add the World Cup to their trophy cabinet along with the euros cup! And Ian Herbet agrees too.
