New Women's football thread (inc World Cup) 2023-26

[alfie]

Bit of a raffle now I suppose. Nerves as much as ability - and a dash of luck.

Guess France were the better team overall tonight ; but Australia kept creating chances too and might have won several times so whoever gets it now will just about deserve the result.

[alfie]

Advantage Australia...

[alfie]

Oh dear ! Down to sudden death now...

[Gingerfinch]

Off her line again?

[alfie]

Unbelievable ! They still keep swapping misses...

We will be here all night...

[Gingerfinch]

Well done Australia and all

[alfie]

Australia wins ! Finally the deadlock is broken...

Have to feel for these players who never expect to have to take a penalty when they are called on to settle the game like that .

Heartbreaker for France and unbridled joy for the home team. They really will believe they can win the whole thing after that.

[Gingerfinch]

Needed that. England are being bullied a bit in the midfield but are getting some freedom down the right. Can't see any changes at HT.

[GarlicJam]

That was pretty bloody tense.

Not a satisfactory way to end a knockout match, but it is definitely easier to handle when the result goes your way.

First time in a world cup semi-final for Australia - men or women. Well done them, and may they keep winning.

[Gingerfinch]

Another error that we've punished.

[Gingerfinch]

Colombia huffed and puffed but we defended well. Bring on the Aussies!

[alfie]

So another Ashes clash , eh ?

Somewhat relieved to see England got through that one - not that I could see it as the TV coverage here is abominable and I did not have the right app to watch the game. Fortunately guaranteed to see the semis as all Australian games are covered ...

Gather the England ladies got a small taste of the hostile crowd they are going to face on Wednesday ? Who knew there were so many Columbians in Sydney

[Durhamfootman]

England played pretty well, I thought. I figured Colombia would try to repeat the Nigeria game plan, because the two sides play in a similar, high tempo counter attacking way, but England defended much better tonight and didn't end up having to furiously defend for long periods. The two sides shared the first half, I think, but England were pretty much in control for the bulk of that second half and there weren't too many alarms really.

Did Santos shoot? I'm not sure, it was an odd goal.... it seemed to balloon up to Earps and looked pretty innocuous, so I was stunned when the ball dropped late and went in over her head. Ronaldinho-esque

The 2 KO games for England were against very 'hands on' defenders, tugging and pushing away at anything... agricultural ain't in it and they largely got away with it.... so England have had a bit of practice ahead of the semi, because I reckon Australia will pose a similar, if more potent, challenge. A semi against France would have posed a set of completely different questions

[Gingerfinch]

Yeah I thought we looked pretty comfortable. I recon their goal was a fluke but as it turns out, who cares now. Quick point on the ref. She was abysmal.

[Durhamfootman]

oh yes, the ref was awful

I was particularly bemused when Hemp got completely wiped out.... no free kick, Daly got flattened with a straight finger jab in the face... no free kick, then Caicedo tackled from behind, got every bit of the ball and none of the player..... free kick to England.

there was quite a lot of that.

on the flip side, an more overly officious ref might have pulled out yellow cards for Stanway and Bronze, both of whom made late challenges and could have ended up missing the semi. Both have now had their earlier yellow cards wiped, so all's good