WOMEN'S FOOTBALL

Women’s World Cup: England’s Bronze dreams gold

Published

1 year ago

August 17, 2023

FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023 - Semi Final - Australia v England - Stadium Australia, Sydney, Australia - August 16, 2023 England's Lucy Bronze in action with Australia's Caitlin Foord REUTERS/Carl Recine/File photo Acquire Licensing Right

Right back Lucy Bronze believes England’s experience in winning a major final at last year’s Euros could be crucial in Sunday’s Women’s World Cup title-decider against a Spain side she knows well.

Bronze, Asisat Oshoala’s teammate at Barcelona, lost World Cup semi-finals with England in 2015 and 2019 but was a core member of the Lionesses team that beat Germany to win a first major title at the European Championship last year.

The 31-year-old, who plays her club football in Spain for Barcelona, was again a rock in defence on Wednesday when England neutralised a big crowd in Sydney to beat co-hosts Australia 3-1 and reach their first World Cup final.

“We’re going up against a team I personally know very well,” Bronze told reporters after the match.

“We know how to win finals. That’s something Spain doesn’t have that we have. That’s an experience that not only I have but many of these England players have …

“I’m excited,” she added. “I’m really good friends with a couple of them, my team mates in Barcelona, myself and Keira (Walsh) know them very well.

“We’ve been speaking to them throughout the tournament and even before the tournament started we had a joke, saying, ‘We’ll see you in the final,’ and that’s come true.”

England needed a huge defensive effort and were forced to come from a goal down to beat Spain in extra time in the quarter-finals of last year’s Euros.

Although they arrived at the World Cup as one of the favourites, they came without key players because of injury and then lost one of their best performers, Lauren James, to a ban after she was shown a red card in their match against Nigeria.

Bronze said England’s resilience in the face of such setbacks would also hold them in good stead back at Stadium Australia on Sunday.

“The strength of this team is we stick together, we’ve got an incredibly tight bond, we’ve got a tight-knit team,” she said.

“Winning the Euros last gave us a huge amount of confidence but we’ve suffered a few losses this year in terms of big players, a lot of noise on the outside and it’s just pushed us closer together.

“Before the tournament, people had us down to get knocked out in the group or something, and now we’re in the final.”

-Reuters

WOMEN'S FOOTBALL

What a goal-laden day for Nigeria; Falconets also win with wide margin!

Published

3 hours ago

September 7, 2024

Kunle Solaja

Nigeria Super Falconets gave Nigerians additional joy after their 4-0 defeat of Venezuela in Cali, Colombia in their last group match. Their victory followed up with an earlier 3-0 win by the Super Eagles in their opening Group D match with Benin Republic in Uyo.

The Falconets’ win means they have qualified for the Round of 16 where they are most likely going to face Japan when the group games are completed on Sunday.

Both Nigeria and Germany tied on six points, but Germany have one goal better than Nigeria on goal difference.

The Super Falcons made early hays when Amina Bello put Nigeria ahead after 16 minutes. Chiamaka Okwuchukwu doubled the lead in the 28^th minute before Flourish Sebastine put in the third five minutes into the added time of the first half. Joy Igbokwe put in the back breaker four minutes into the added time of the second hald.

WOMEN'S FOOTBALL

Okwuchukwu shines despite Nigeria’s defeat to Germany in U-20 Women’s World Cup

Published

3 days ago

September 5, 2024

Kunle Solaja

Nigeria’s U-20 Women’s World Cup campaign suffered a setback as they fell to a 3-1 defeat against a clinical German side in Bogota, Colombia on Wednesday night.

The result secures Germany’s place in the knockout stages, while leaving the Falconets with work to do in their final group match.

In an end-to-end encounter, both sides created numerous chances, but it was Germany who struck first. Cora Zicai’s pinpoint cross found Alara Sehitler, who nodded home in the 17th minute to give the Europeans the lead.

Nigeria’s star performer, Chiamaka Okwuchukwu, had earlier come close to opening the scoring with a magnificent solo run, only to be denied by German goalkeeper Rebecca Adamczyk.

Okwuchukwu’s persistence paid off early in the second half when she capitalized on a defensive mix-up to draw Nigeria level, celebrating with Cristiano Ronaldo’s famous ‘siuuu’ celebration.

However, Germany’s quality shone through as they regained the lead through Sofie Zdebel, again assisted by the impressive Zicai.

Despite Okwuchukwu having another goal ruled out for offside, Germany sealed the win in stoppage time with Sarah Ernst’s powerful header.

The defeat leaves Nigeria on three points from two matches, with their final group game against Venezuela in Cali now crucial to their hopes of progressing.

WOMEN'S FOOTBALL

Points of Note in Falconets’ loss to Germany

Published

3 days ago

September 5, 2024

Kunle Solaja

Germany beat Nigeria’s Falconets 3-1 in their second group game of the FIFA U-20 World Cup. With Germany’s win, the Europeans have made it to the last 16 stage, even with a game to spare.

The coach of Germany, Kathrin Peter acknowledged the efforts of the Nigerian team , saying: “It was a really tough match today.

“That was expected, but we actually had big problems in defence. They had a few chances where we had the necessary luck, we have to admit that.

“But in the second half we were really good and asserted our dominance and I think we deserved to win in the end.”

Here are some major points:

Germany beat Nigeria 2-0 in the final match 14 years ago in Germany.

Germany have now won their last four FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup meetings with Nigeria. Alex Popp inspired a 2-0 victory in the 2010 final, Lena Petermann settled the decider in extra-time four year later, and Stefanie Sanders was the solitary scorer in Group D in 2018.