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I didn't see a thread...
great first game home win against on paper a better side, cracking goal, missed penalty couple of great saves.
Corking goal, and a great match. Said it before, say it again - I enjoy women's football loads more than men's, way more free-flowing, far less theatrics. 🙂
Sad to be missing the start as abroad on hol but will hopefully catch some when back. Come on Lionesses!
Really annoys me how many mates say how much they love watching the womens matches and how great the atmosphere looks.....before descending into the usual tribal ****tery about their regular mens teams.
Not convinced how far the Lionesses will go, a lot of last years squad retired or injured
good result but not a great game / performance. Finishing particularly looked quite poor, a few chances they won’t be able to squander against better opposition, and they got undone at the back a bit too.
I was gutted for the Haitian goalkeeper over the penalty retake, fractions of a second in it, and a great stop first time around.
Yeah it was a bit of a soft penalty too!
Quite worried about our defence - I know it's Bright's first (full) game back but we looked very shaky. Without Beth Mead and Leah Williamson I can see us struggling.
I do think Toone is a worthy successor to Kirby but we spent all match bypassing her altogether and pinging it straight out to the wings!
Fair play to Haiti though, they were nobody's fools. Some great players there.
Testing
stonewall penalty, but a dumb one / way to give it away. Lord knows why she had her hands up like that.
Retake - sadly correct, she had clearly stepped off her line.
The defending goalkeeper must remain on the goal line, facing the kicker, between the goalposts until the ball is kicked. When the ball is kicked, the defending goalkeeper must have at least part of one foot touching, in line with, or behind, the goal line.
England look a lot sharper today. absolutely cracking goal!
Not the world cup I was expecting this to be about, I'll move on....
on catch up, just seen the goal. Great strike!
That looked nasty 🙁
Good performance from England with another cracking goal from James !
And she was very unfortunate to have a goal disallowed for offside. The women's game has come on so much in the last few years – you still see some errors you wouldn't see in men's football at higher levels, but they are certainly improving massively.
Watched the second half - some good stuff, some howlers, awful referee.
Watched the second half
Where? I went onto the BBC site to watch it and was surprised it wasn't on there
It was on ITV. 🙂
5 minute highlights are now live on the BBC web site though
It was on ITV
Gah! Typical.
So group stages are done and quite a few big names have fallen or at least stumbled (and I'd include England in that list). Bring on the knockout stages - usa Sweden looks like the pick, but I bet nobody predicted we'd see Jamaica v columbia.
It's been good so far - I think Sweden will beat USA. Germany were bad this morning! Who thought Columbia and Morocco would qualify from that group!
Well, this is rather under-whelming and I have no idea what Lauren James was thinking.
It’s not a great game is it! A shame that Lauren James did that, very silly. It’s very flat. Here’s hoping extra time brings the goal!! Nigeria have been very good though
We’ve looked a bit leggy and playing way too deep! Fingers crossed!!
RM.
Well, that was an almighty let-off :O It's crazy that, for all of their possession, Nigeria have only actually had one effort on target.
This is really poor from England – we just can't keep hold of the ball.
They're tired, Very tired...
Penalties. Who's going to hold their nerve?
Aaaaargh
Ignoring the first one, that's a decent set of pens.
Nigeria have been robbed there. Like I care.
Phew!
RM.
How the hell we managed to pull that one off I will never know - thoroughly undeserved but still, it makes up (slightly) for the disappointment in the netball yesterday.
TBH I feel sorry for Nigeria - they were far more positive (though also seemingly far more physical from the amount of times Hemp got dumped on the ground). and Nigeria progressing would've made a better story than England scraping through. Expect Columbia and Jamaica will fancy their chances against us now.
Yup, good to get the result but very, very much against the run of play. Nigeria will be rightly gutted.
Expect Columbia and Jamaica will fancy their chances against us now.
I can't see us playing that badly again TBH - in football, you often just need that bit of luck at times and we've come through a poor game with a result.
BTW any thoughts on the 'Ref explains the VAR decision' thing? So far it seems to be 'Ref says what they're doing but doesn't say why' which isn't really clearing anything up. It's not exactly progress for them to just say 'having reviewed VAR, no penalty', I thought they were meant to say something like 'having reviewed VAR player X was off balance and falling before player Y made contact, so no penalty'.
I can’t see us playing that badly again TBH – in football, you often just need that bit of luck at times and we’ve come through a poor game with a result.
Hmmmm
I fear we lack a creative attacking spark, without Mead and Kirby. It looked like Lauren James might be stepping up to that role. But she could be out for the rest of the tournament. Ella Toone could possibly do it? Although the team was kind of set up to bypass her in the first couple of games so she didn't make much of an impact. J-Nobbs?
Massive kudos to England to tough out a win. Nigeria fashioned 1 fairly lame shot on target, for an easy save, in the second half, yet no admiration for England’s defence 🤷♂️
Nigeria didn’t do enough to win. Then blew the shootout. England held on with 10 players for over 40 minutes, then won the shootout, that’s not nothing.
That last penalty was a cracker.
Foot like a traction engine!
Lauren James for the David Beckham Idiotic Sending Off award
I'm inclined to say that ^ but I'm also wary that then benches in particular have something else to berate the officials with after the review / decision, when they disagree with interpretation. I know rugby do it, so it can work - you just need the culture to change enough in football that they accept that some decisions aren't necessarily black or white. But that's poss even more the case in football than rugby - for example contact is almost never an issue in rugby, it's allowed at almost any power and intent - no 'it wasn't enough to knock a player over, they've gone down too easy' type judgement in rugby, it's matters of fact mainly like was it below chest level, were they in the air, did they get tipped over horizontal, etc.
The main purpose of the audio update was i think to explain to people in the stadiums but the hand signals do it anyway, in my mind.
"After review" (we know, we saw you looking at the screen) "the decision is yellow card cancelled" (we know, you're doing the crossed arms wave) "and the decision is red card" (we know, you're now waving a red card)
Lauren James for the David Beckham Idiotic Sending Off award
I missed the second half and penalties, so got some of the 5Live funditry in the car afterwards - you'd think Lauren James was the first of England's bright young things to cock up their future career prospects!
almost certain to be panel reviewed too, as violent conduct. And a one match ban, becomes three. And that's tournament over, for one of England's only real bright spots so far.
Idiot. But i hope right now she's getting support, because she's just a kid and probably absolutely devastated; thank goodness she's not carrying the weight of the team's exit as well.
some cracking goals but the finish on the last one was so brutally clinical! 😀
Kerr's was a screamer
Great result though
^ it was ....
Not sure why the England defence didn't do something about it!
Magnificent goals, I think we will go all the way.
A cracking game but we were so lucky that neither of those Kerr chances went in - they were both gilt-edged and her face at the end shows that she knew it.
Well done Lionesses!
Great performance from the Lionesses with 3 quality goals (and the amazing Kerr goal). Hope they can finish it on Sunday!
Yay well done Lionesses!!! And a big 😝 to my brother in Australia supporting the Matilda's!
Sad Aussie fan faces. Never gets old...
Big problem now is what to do with Lauren James on Sunday as you would have to be a stone hearted bitch to take any of today's team out of the final.
Big problem now is what to do with Lauren James on Sunday as you would have to be a stone hearted bitch to take any of today’s team out of the final.
Nice problem to have though
Lauren James on the bench for final I'd have thought
Brilliant game both teams played well. Looking forward to Sunday.
you would have to be a stone hearted bitch to take any of today’s team out of the final
While stone hearted bitch might be strong, Sarina Wiegman strikes me as pretty ruthless and will be remembered for what she achieves on Sunday, not the xi she names in the starting line up.
theotherjonv - you beat me to it.
Sarina Weigman will select the best starting XI for the tactics she wants to deploy - and I think the squad both understand and accept that.
While stone hearted bitch might be strong, Sarina Wiegman strikes me as pretty ruthless and will be remembered for what she achieves on Sunday, not the xi she names in the starting line up.
This - there is no room for sentiment at this level. At the end of the day, it is a team game and the team got us to the final. If the decision is to put James back in the starting line-up (which I think makes sense as she has been sensational at times) then I would have no qualms about it.
James certainly straight back in for me, she has been our best player.
If the goal by Kerr doesn't win goal of the tournament then it's a travesty. The final England goal was a stunner as well, amazing ball through from Hemp and an ice cool finish from Russo.
Just watched the highlights to catch up - what a fantastic advert for womens football.
If the goal by Kerr doesn’t win goal of the tournament then it’s a travesty
That would be a candidate for goal of the season, for either gender
Wicked game today, watched it live, absolutely loving the women's game, I thought we played excellent 1st half, started 2nd half a bit half hearted , the brilliant Kerr goal liven us up and well the rest is history....got a bit annoyed at the commentary 5 mins from time " England are thought the final " ...im like shut up the game ain't over and they like to stick on a extra 9mins on top, thankfully they did it......going to have to get up extra early on Sunday to fit in a ride before the game
Ella Toone's goal was also a belter.
going to have to get up extra early on Sunday to fit in a ride before the game
Club rides starting at 7 this Sunday...
James certainly straight back in for me, she has been our best player.
see now, I would leave her out until later into the game. I imagine when she is on the field , England play in a certain way. The other teams would have studied this and worked out tactics based on that predictability. Change a few things up and it throws em a bit.
Hello,
WORLD CUP FINAL is about to start!
Predictions then?
Can see Spain scoring, so 2-1 or 3-1 England for me.
Should be a great game.
I’ve put a bet on an England win, with both teams scoring and Russo to score
England to win 3 -2 in extra time
Club rides starting at 7 this Sunday
What is it with all you morning people. Even with penalties it'll be done by about 2! Absolutely no justification for getting up at the crack of dawn on a Sunday 🤷
BBC commentator sounds like she's lost her voice already. Going to be a long morning for her poor vocal cords.
Not looking good for Rachel or Tahnee at the moment.
Not enjoying the Spanish commentary coming through in the background, sounds like they just sorted it out though!!
Cracking game for the neutral so far!
Reminds me of the Spanish men's side tiki taka-ing everyone out of the game a few WCs back.
Spain more incisive and worthy of lead. England not out of it by any means though
Disappointing half, Spain been very good.
still think we can turn it around
Be brave ref..... stick with your on field
Since when do refs talk on the PA?