Sports
FWWC: England ousts Power-Puff Girls of Columbia 2-1 in the Quarters.
SEMIFINAL SCORE BOARD
Sweden will meet Spain in the first semifinal on Tuesday 15th august at Eden Park in Auckland at 0900 hours.
England will now meet hosts Australia in the second semifinal on Wednesday 16th August at 1100 hours.
The Three Lionesses of England on Saturday at the Stadium Australia handicapped the Power-Puff Girls of Columbia in the quarterfinals of the women’s world cup 2-1 to qualify for her second appearance in the last four after Canada 2015.
Incidentally, the Power-Puff Girls scored first through Athletico Madrid’s Lecy Santos with a stunning out swinger that simply dropped into the net for her first goal at the tournament.
Manchester City’s Lauren Hemp got a pass from Russo that Perez of Columbia miscalculated an interception for and Hemp put it in for an equalizer.
Georgia Stanway floated a pass to Arsenals’ Alessia Russo to get the winner at 63rd minute. Russo scored in the 6-1 bashing of China at the group stages.
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England surely missed Lauren James their beautiful restless goal poacher who stamped maliciously on Super Falcon’s player at the Round of 16 and got a red card. FIFA officially announced a two match for James meaning she will still miss the Semifinal and may return at the final or 3rd place match whichever applies.
England will now meet hosts Australia in the second semifinal on Wednesday 16th August at 1100 hours.
Earlier today in a dramatic encounter that produced the highest penalty kicks ever in any world cup match, male or female with 20 kicks of 10 each, hosts Australia defeated France 7-6 to move to the semifinal.
England in their first match narrowly beat Haiti 1-0 on 22nd July; won against Denmark by the same margin on 28th July and on 1st August dazed China 6-1. England beat Super Falcons of Nigeria 4-2 on penalties after a goalless full time to move on to the quarterfinal from the round of 16.
England is in their 6th knockout stages. The country won two of their round of 16 matches, 2-1 against Norway in 2015 and 3-0 over Cameroon in 2019.
England was at the world cup six times and her best was a Bronze at Canada 2015 when she lost the semifinal 1-2 to Japan and beat France 1-0 in the 3rd place match. She had three quarterfinal appearances in Sweden 1995 when she was beaten by Germany 3-0; at China 2007 USA pounded England 3-0 and Germany came again while hosting in 2011 to beat England 4-3 on penalties when AET was 1-1.
To get to the round of 16, Columbia banged Korea 2-0 on 25th of July; defeated Germany 2-1 on 30th July and lost to Morocco 0-1 on 30th of July. Columbia scored four goals and conceded 2 vital goals. Columbia piped the Reggae Girlz of Jamaica by a lone goal to stop the all night long Reggae Jamz.
This is the second appearance of Columbia at the round of 16 stages at the world cup after 2015 where they were eliminated at that stage by eventual winners USA 0-2. Among South American teams, only Brazil has managed to win a game at the Knockout stage in 1999 and 2007.
England and Jamaica met once at the world cup which was a Group F match at Montreal in Canada on 17th June 2015 which England won. The two goals scored at that match were from Karen Carney and Fara Williams. Columbia defeated England 3-2 on 31st May 2005 and England retaliated 3-2 on 3rd May 2020.
England is playing their 6th quarterfinal at the world cup. They failed to qualify for the semifinal in the first three.
Columbia is getting to the quarterfinal for the first time and are looking to become the second American side to reach the final four after Brazil in 1999 and 2007.
Sweden will meet Spain in the first semifinal on Tuesday 15th august at Eden Park in Auckland at 0900 hours.
Something unique is that we are expecting a new champion for the world as previous champions, four times winner USA; two times winner, Germany; Japan and Norway that won one time each have been exited in this tournament.
By Eniola Olatunji
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Pep Guardiola has explained the reason for Manchester City’s resurgence as they push for the Premier League title.
The win lifts City to 64 points from 31 games, cutting the deficit to leaders Arsenal—who have 70 points from 32 matches—to just six points, ramping up the title race in the closing stages of the campaign.
Asked why Manchester City have been in such fine form in the final stages of the season, Pep Guardiola joked: “The sun! If it had been shining in November, we’d have been league champions by January… No, I’m joking, of course. In Manchester, the sun doesn’t shine very often.”
Looking ahead to next Sunday’s 32nd-round clash with Arsenal in the Premier League, he added: “That game will feel like a final for both teams, but there is a tactical detail we need to review, so we may make some adjustments.
“Everyone is talking about the Arsenal game, but matches against Brentford, Bournemouth and the other sides are just as important. The season is still long.”
Guardiola added “We’re in better shape, and in training everyone knows exactly what they have to do. We’ve faced three strong opponents, three Champions League teams. We didn’t put in a complete performance for the full 90 minutes, but we were organised enough, didn’t concede many chances, and our attacking threat was always there.”
Pep Guardiola
He added:One of our secrets as a club and a system is that, after one success after another, we have remained humble and have always asked ourselves: what must we do to stay at the top? Winning once or twice is normal, but to remain at the top for nine years—with the exception of last season—reflects the strength of the entire system.”
After trimming the gap to six points with a game in hand, Doku emphasized that City is confident, focused, and ready for the final.
“Obviously, three points here, in a tough game, we did very well. We needed those three points,” Doku told the club’s website.
“So we’re just going to keep on going, keep on going. We know that we still have everything in our hands. We’re going to recover well and we look forward to the game on Sunday.
“Coming here is not easy, playing here against Chelsea in their stadium is not easy. We just had to keep on going.
“We adapted our pressing a bit and more runs in behind, that opens more spaces. The way we started the second half also put a lot of pressure on them. In those moments when you can score it helps a lot.”
Real Madrid has stated that rumors on considering incorporating a sports director into its structure are categorically false.
According to Fabrizio Romano’s X post on Friday, the club was quoted as saying, “Real Madrid extraordinarily values the work that the club’s sports management has been carrying out, which has allowed us to live through one of the most successful periods in our entire history with the achievement of numerous titles, including 6 European Cups in ten years.”
It strongly reaffirm confidence in its current sporting management structure.
It also praise the existing leadership, crediting it for one of the most successful eras in the club’s history.
As evidence, they point to major achievements, including six UEFA Champions League titles in the last decade.
Overall, it’s a standard club statement aimed at shutting down speculation while reinforcing trust in their current internal setup.
Madrid have long operated with a distinct organisational model, where key transfer and sporting decisions are primarily overseen by senior executives and trusted football leadership rather than a traditional sporting director structure common in many European clubs.
The club’s denial comes amid continued speculation in Spanish football media about potential internal changes, particularly as elite clubs across Europe increasingly adopt centralized sporting director systems to streamline recruitment and long-term squad planning.
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