England supervisor Sarina Wiegman admitted her group’s slim victory over Nigeria within the World Cup final 16 was probably the most intense she has been concerned in, joking that the sport aged her by a full decade in solely a matter of hours.
Having struggled to search out their rhythm towards each Haiti and Denmark through the group stage, the Lionesses regarded to have cracked once they put six targets previous China of their third sport. But Nigeria’s gameplan massively restricted what the European champions might do.
The outcome was the Super Falcons being the higher group over 120 minutes, having fun with extra makes an attempt on objective and twice hitting the woodwork. England additionally had Lauren James despatched off for a petulant stamp as frustrations boiled over at being marked out of the sport.
Eventually, regardless of Georgia Stanway lacking their first kick of the shootout, England prevailed to one way or the other stay alive within the World Cup and arrange a quarter-final with Colombia or Jamaica.
“I don’t know what my heart rate is, I just know I’m 10 years older – so quite a lot of emotions,” Wiegman admitted afterwards.
The Dutch coach, who led Netherlands to the final World Cup last in 2019, insisted England have been by no means “worried” as it could suggest that they had underestimated Nigeria within the first place.
“Nigeria has done really well in the group stage, as we all have seen, so we were not underestimating them at all, and they showed what a good team they have,” she defined.
“They were very well organised, very physical, very athletic, they pressed a little higher – we had trouble getting out of their press. We could do a little better but I think it was also to give them the credit how good they did that – how fast they went back if they would get out of that first press. They keep the ball and create chances, they did that really well.
“They have been very transitional, so the second we misplaced the ball they have been actually fast. When the sport modified when LJ went out, then in fact we dropped deeper with ten, then they needed to make the sport slightly extra. Then they struggled slightly bit I believe.”
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Prior to the game, England had already witnessed Nigeria beat Australia and draw with Canada, effectively knocking the latter out at the group stage. Germany and Brazil had also been eliminated by teams they previously would have expected to beat.
“Nothing is simple on this match,” Wiegman said. “That could be very thrilling about this match too, you see the ladies’s sport has improved a lot. You noticed it within the group stage, so many video games have been equal and it isn’t the anticipated groups have gained on a regular basis.
“We were really preparing for this [Nigeria] game as an equal game, and that’s what it showed. Well more than that, I haven’t been in very many games that were so intense as this one.”
Losing James to the purple card is the most recent in a string of setbacks for England. The Lionesses have been denied Leah Williamson, Beth Mead and Fran Kirby by way of damage from the beginning, needed to nurse Millie Bright again to health within the buildup and noticed Keira Walsh stretchered off towards Denmark.
“I’m really proud of the team,” Wiegman added. “We’ve had many setbacks and this was a big one too. So as soon as it looked like Lauren James was sent off, straightaway we had to reorganise and do something else on the pitch. We didn’t need a minute to do so.
“Then the conviction to maintain the [clean sheet] and attempt to get out of [Nigeria’s] press, that was simply unbelievable. And in fact the gamers received actually drained however we actually caught collectively and confirmed lots of resilience. To be so drained right into a penalty shootout and achieve this properly, that’s actually unbelievable from the group.”
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