The Three Lionesses of England on Tuesday at the Hindmarsh Stadium tamed the Chinese Girls in a pulsating 6-1 encounter to top Group D.
England had scored 3-0 at half time showing that China may be sent to the Exit Door in time. China did not come to show respect to the English team for they met twice in friendly games in 2015 and on 9th April England won 2-1 while China retaliated on 23rd October.
England meant business this time scoring the first goal at 4th minute through Arsenal Forward, Alessia Rosso and in the 26th minute Lauren Hemp of Manchester City got a pass from James who had laced Rosso for the first goal, in the 26th minute only for unmarked Lauren James of Chelsea to get a telegraphic pass from Greenwood to curl the ball into the net for the 3rd goal at 41st minute.
England tried into increase the tally before retreating to the Dressing room when Bronze scored at 45+7th minute but VAR ruled it offside.
China pulled one back when Bronze handled the ball in the box and was flashed a yellow card for the breech. Wang Shuang stepped forward to make it 3-1 at 57th minute.
Carter pulled a cross into the box and James got it to beat goalkeeper Zhu in the 65th minute for the 4th goal. Goalkeeper Zhu miscalculated a James lob and Manchester City’s Chloe Kelly made it 5th goal for England before Aston Villa’s Rachael Dally volleyed home a shot which VAR insisted was a genuine goal.
In the first round matches, England defeated Haiti by a lone goal while Denmark beat China 1-0 also. In the second round, England piped Denmark by a lone goal and China honked Haiti 1-0.
After the last group matches, England topped Group D winning all their three matches scoring 8 goals and conceding one with a handsome 9 points; Denmark came second having 6 points from two wins and a loss scoring a meager 3 goals and conceding one; China goes home with their 3 points from a win and two loses scoring 2 goals and conceding 7 while Haiti lost all their matches and could not score a goal but conceded 4 to be at the bottom of the group.
With the obtained results Denmark faces hosts Australia on Monday 7th August at Stadium Australia at 1130 hours after the Super Falcons of Nigeria would have battled the Three Lionesses of England at the Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane that has become home for Nigeria at 0830 hours.
China had failed to score in each of their last five world cup matches against European sided since beating Netherlands in 2015. It was an antithesis because China had never lost their final group stage game at the world cup except this English magic. They won five, drew the last two and lost this one.
England has now won six of their final group matches.
Tomorrow Wednesday 2nd August, Group G matches will be decided simultaneously at 0800 hours. Argentina will square up against Sweden at the FMG Stadium Waikato while South Africa has a herculean task to beat Italy at Wellington Regional Stadium for a surprise win may let Africa have another team at the Round of 16.
Also tomorrow at 1100 hours Group F matches will be determined. Panama the whipped team of the group will try to survive against former Champions, France at the Allianz Stadium while the Reggae Girlz will try to obtain another miracle with a win over the Samba Girls of Brazil at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium.
By Eniola Olatunji
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