England manager Sarina Wiegman admitted her team’s narrow victory over Nigeria in the World Cup last 16 was one of the most intense she has been involved in, joking that the game aged her by a full decade in only a matter of hours.
Having struggled to find their rhythm against both Haiti and Denmark during the group stage, the Lionesses looked to have cracked when they put six goals past China in their third game. But Nigeria’s gameplan massively restricted what the European champions could do.
The result was the Super Falcons being the better team over 120 minutes, enjoying more attempts on goal and twice hitting the woodwork. England also had Lauren James sent off for a petulant stamp as frustrations boiled over at being marked out of the game.
Eventually, despite Georgia Stanway missing their first kick of the shootout, England prevailed to somehow remain alive in the World Cup and set up 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 last World Cup final in 2019, insisted England were never “worried” as it would imply they had underestimated Nigeria in 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 explained.
“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 were very transitional, so the moment we lost the ball they were really quick. When the game changed when LJ went out, then of course we dropped deeper with ten, then they had to make the game a little more. Then they struggled a little bit I think.”
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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 easy in this tournament,” Wiegman said. “That is very exciting about this tournament too, you see the women’s game has improved so much. You saw it in the group stage, so many games were equal and it’s not the expected teams have won all the time.
“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 red card is the latest in a string of setbacks for England. The Lionesses were denied Leah Williamson, Beth Mead and Fran Kirby through injury from the start, had to nurse Millie Bright back to fitness in the buildup and saw Keira Walsh stretchered off against 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 keep the [clean sheet] and try to get out of [Nigeria’s] press, that was just incredible. And of course the players got really tired but we really stuck together and showed a lot of resilience. To be so tired into a penalty shootout and do so well, that’s really incredible from the team.”
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