The Three Lionesses of England have qualified for a first-ever FIFA women’s World Cup final after defeating co-hosts Australia in Wednesday’s semi-final.
England made the semi-finals in the 2015 and 2019 editions in Canada and France respectively.
After a tight opening first half, England broke the deadlock in the 36th minute through Ella Toone.
Australia star player Sam Kerr equalised for the hosts in the 63rd minute.
England retook the lead on 71 minutes thanks to Lauren Hemp before Alessia Ruso got the third with four minutes left.
They will now take on Spain in the final on Sunday, August 20.
Also read: Man City Beat Sevilla On Penalty Shootout To Land First-Ever Super Cup Trophy
The Spaniards, who beat Sweden 2-1 in Tuesday’s semi-finals, will also be making their first appearance in the World Cup final.
The final could also see the return of Lauren James, who was sent off in the round of 16 clash with Nigeria’s Super Falcons.
Meanwhile, the third place match will be between Australia and Sweden.
10 Comments
EYAH!This could have been my ASHLEY PLUMTRE in the FINAL.I WARNED her not to SWITCH through DM on INSTA that the NFF is the BIGGEST OBSTACLE to our FOOTBALL GROWTH but she wouldn’t listen….
Can’t believe a team we outplayed in the second round made it all the way to the finals!
Had we taken our chances against Ireland who knows where we would have finished in this tournament.
Our “Agba player “Was wasting chances a real Agba player should score!
Blame nobody but the coach, Onumonu, and Asisat Oshoala for this.
We had the opportunity to reach the final, but we wasted it. To my surprise, some of us and the coach still celebrate the group stage achievements.
NFF apart because they are waste of time though. We dominated the match against England, but the tactics and wrong subs made it impossible for Nigeria to progress in that tournament. So sad. Anyway, congratulations to England. Ire o. God bless!!!
Motherluck and tactical blunders from WALDRUM aside, ENGLAND’S annihilation of AUSTRALIA was testament that SUPER FALCONS performances were never a FLUKE!
We almost defeated AUSTRALIA 3:1 scoreline just like the 3 LIONESS
Two teams we outplayed in all ramifications ended up playing for the final of the WorldCup. Just like SuperEagles in 94. We pushed Italy all the way only to lose in extra time with a penalty. Italy went all the way to the final.
This was our tournament to go all the way to at least a Semi Finals finish, but because of our usual Ọtẹ we couldn’t give what we don’t have. If the team had been supported from the day they qualified for the WorldCup they might’ve surpassed all expectations.
The coach they never believed in came out of the WorldCup unbeaten and two teams we outplayed went on to play for the final. One of them eventually made it to the final and a likely champion in the making.
This is a lesson of wish we never learn that when we put all resources together and support a team that brings glory to the nation amazing things happen. I hope they keep Waldrum otherwise it will be another one step forward ten steps backwards.
We just missed an opportunity to go all the way in this tournament.
If not for those poor penalty kicks, we sure could have sailed through the England match and the rest, they say, could have been history
We squandered our opportunities to go far in this tournament on two occasions: Match against Ireland which we couldn’t take so as to go through an easier route and the match against England which we could not wrap up even with a one-man advantage.
In all cases, should England lift the trophy, it is on record that we gave them the toughest match and they would continue to respect UA for that!
****respect us for that******
Okpanroze and Olazie foreclosed our chances. If only they scored their first shot opportunity, followed by Olyaze , we world have beaten Australia again and thereby play in the final. This omo9nja was the one who begged that Okpanroze should, by all means, be included in the team now this omo9ja is blaming the coach.
omo9ja, did the coach told them to shoot over the bar? Did the coach told Olazie to shoot over the bar after she saw what Okponroze just did. omo9ja’s article always make people sick whenever his article is written. omo9ja tends to talk from both side of his mouth.
Truly Nigeria had a squad that had the ability to get to the final or Semi Final at least. I put our early exit purely on the doorstep of NFF. Can you imagine this our worst preparation for a World cup yet we were unbeaten and overcame Australia and could not be beaten by England, the likely winner of the competition.
So just imagine if we had our usual preparation of a better camping with more high profile friendlies we would at least gotten to the Final.
Our Goalkeeper was superb, our defence superb our midfield superb. But our only deficiency was the attack. And not because of lack of good talents but the coach had not tested them enough in good friendly matches to know the capacity of his oplayers. This made him rely mainly on Oshola and Onumonu and Kanu. I^m taking anything away from them but the coach had other players that could have gotten the job done but he couldn’t trust them and I don’t blame him because he did prepare enough.
The likes of Uchenna Kanu, Gift Monday, Desire Opanozie, Esther Okronkwo, Ifeoma Onumonu and Azizat Oshola had enough fire power to score any team but they needed to blend together and the coach needed to trust them. But for that to happen they needed time to camp and prepare well with good friendly matches but NFF could not do this. Obviously they did not believe in the coach. This led to the fight between NFF and Waldrum.
But the players now decided to forget about their issues with NFF instead of protest they decided to do the opposite. Which was to do their best eeven when they were terribly treated. What an Irony.
They saw NFF was planning for them to fail but they together with their coach decided to do the opposite. You can now imagine what would have happened if NFF did well.
Even at that they still had what it takes to go further but the God of soccer will not want NFF to reap where they did not sow, so he had to contsrain Super Falcons so NFF will lean their lessons that if they are willing.