Five things we learned as England scraped past Nigeria to reach World Cup quarter-finals

England are through to the Women’s World Cup quarter-finals for the fifth successive tournament, although beating Nigeria in the last 16 to get there was certainly no easy feat.

After 120 goal-less minutes and the Lionesses riding their luck more than once, as well as Lauren James sent off, it took a penalty shootout to eventually prevail over the Super Falcons.

Nigeria were by far the better team overall and appeared to have a clear game plan where England didn’t. Given that Sarina Wiegman’s team were coming off the back of their best performance of the tournament after thrashing China in the group stage, it was a return to the kind of lacklustre display that previously saw the Lionesses only scrape past Haiti in their opening game last month.

England lacked control

With Keira Walsh named in the starting XI after recovering from the knee injury that had ruled her out of the China game, it was hoped that England would kick on and dominate proceedings.

But that isn’t how it panned out. Nigeria’s relentless press and squeezing of space through the middle ensured it was a constant struggle for the Lionesses to build any sort of rhythm. In turn, it meant the Super Falcons were well placed to force mistakes and create chances of their own.

This was the same 3-4-1-2 system that in use against China, but with a totally different outcome.

Nigeria have demonstrated how to stifle and suppress England, which could serve as a blueprint for other teams later in the competition. The onus is now on Wiegman to address the weaknesses that were exposed and come up with solutions.

Lucky in moments

A more clinical team than Nigeria might have dumped England out of the World Cup long before the game went to extra-time and penalties. The Super Falcons hit the crossbar in either half and had nearly double the attempts on goal that England did – 20 to 12 – but only forced Mary Earps into two saves. Chiamaka Nnadozie in the opposite goal was ultimately busier.

England saw a soft penalty decision in their favour overturned when Rachel Daly was initially adjudged to have been bundled over in the box, but then weren’t penalised in extra-time for a far more blatant and deliberate shove from Lucy Bronze on Michelle Alozie that probably should have resulted in a Nigeria spot-kick but wasn’t reviewed by VAR.

Lauren James could miss the rest of the World Cup

Lauren James had been England’s star during the group stage. After starting on the bench against Haiti, it was her wondrous early strike that delivered the win over Denmark, before then tearing apart China and racking up two more goals and three assists.

But Nigeria, having clearly come up with a plan to stop the Chelsea talent making that kind of impact again, refused to let her dictate things like China had allowed previously, ensuring James had significantly fewer touches (46) than against either China (70) or Denmark (71). Even in just 29 minutes as a substitute against Haiti, she had touched the ball 30 times.

Eventually, frustration got the better of her and the 21-year-old lashed out in the final minutes of normal time. James tangled with the aforementioned Alozie and, in getting up, appeared to deliberately step on her opponent still lying on the floor.

To her credit, Alozie didn’t respond by rolling around in supposed pain, but incredulously looked to the referee to take some kind of action. Initially, that action was just a yellow card, until VAR intervened and Melissa Borjas jogged over to the pitchside monitor for a second look. As soon as that was the case, the writing was on the wall for James as the contact between her boot and Alozie’s back looked completely avoidable and could only be deemed violent conduct.

Upgraded to a straight red card, the dismissal comes with an automatic one-game ban. But that isn’t necessarily it as the punishment could yet be reviewed and extended by FIFA’s disciplinary panel. That has already been seen at this tournament when Nigeria’s Deborah Abiodun was handed a three-game ban for her dangerous tackle on Canada’s Ashley Lawrence in her team's opening game.

James is already banned from England’s quarter-final come what may. But if she is suspended for three games, she won’t play again at this World Cup, even if the Lionesses reach the final.

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Composed from the spot

Even with a disappointing performance over 120 minutes, England were composed from the spot in the penalty shootout. They had some practice of that against Brazil in April’s Finalissima at Wembley, but this was a first for the Lioensses in major tournaments since 2011.

Georgia Stanway lashed her opening effort wide of the target, but the follow up attempts from Bethany England, Rachel Daly, Alex Greenwood and Chloe Kelly were all ice cold conversions. Daly and Kelly, in particular, rifled theirs into the top corners with unsaveable venom.

Galvanising win

After the group stage wins over Haiti and Denmark, the consistent message from the England camp was that the result was the most important things. That will be the same now, with the fact that the Lionesses remain alive in the World Cup all that really matters.

The great hope is that the nature of the victory will at least serve as a bonding moment for the players and give them belief that, even when not playing at their best, they still have the mental resilience to come through the challenges that are presented to them.

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