The quarterfinal stage is now over and we are edging closer the semi-final stage. There were a couple of surprises in this round especially for me but these changes have made the next stage even more exciting for me.
First up was Norway vs England and honestly I wrote England off with how Norway had been playing against the opponents they faced but this game proved a real surprise with England coming out as 3-0 winners. England were great attacking and even better on the defensive front with Houghton pulling off some fantastic clearances and Bardsley making some great saves. Once again Jill was brilliant in midfield and White had a great game upfront. Norway though just didn't look like they had in previous matches, maybe it was the fact that it wasn't long since Australia had taken them to extra time and penalties. It was nice to see a game though where VAR didn't make an appearance and the ref actually controlled the game for once. It is nice to see England making another appearance in a semi-final, fingers crossed they can go that one step further now.
Friday night saw hosts France take on the USA. It was always bound to be a brilliant game and when the USA took the lead early on I thought it would bring the fight back to France but they couldn't break through the USA defence. It was Rapinoe who got her second goal of the night to send the USA into a 2-0 lead but Renard managed to pull 1 goal back to make it 2-1 but it was too little too late and the hosts exited the tournament. The game wasn't as good as expected but was still a pretty good game.
There was 2 games on Saturday, Italy took on the Netherlands where the Netherlands came away with a 2-0 win to progress to the next round. Although defeated Italy can be proud, they topped a difficult group and made it to the quarters. The Netherlands have once again shown their quality and I am really glad to see them progress. Next up we had Germany vs Sweden which is another game that really surprised me. I thought with Germany's form that they would have ended up winning this one but Sweden came out as 2-1 winners in the end. Don't get me wrong Sweden have been great throughout the competition but I honestly thought Germany would be a bigger threat to them and beat them.
So now they are all done the semi-finals are decided England vs USA and Netherlands vs Sweden. These are definitely going to be some great games and hopefully provide plenty of goals. Can England beat the current champions? I am dreading this match as I love both teams and the USA has some of my idols on the team I don't want to see anyone go home. Can the Netherlands beat Sweden or are the Swedish going to keep up momentum and shock the Dutch. It will be interesting though as if the USA and Sweden both win we could be looking at a repeat of the match that cost the USA their spot in the 2016 Olympics.
Bring on Tuesday and Wednesday I will definitely be glued to the screen for these games.
See you soon,
Lucy.
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