Everyone settled down from the football yet? Was a real nail biter wasn’t it?
When Lauren James got sent-off in the 87th minute you just felt like it wasn’t going to be England’s day and that the writing was on the wall.
Throw into the mix the penalty that was given then eventually overturned in the first-half for the push in the box on Rachel Daly, which was finished off with a rather acrobatic jump may I add, one a certain Tom Daly would be proud of, it seemed as though England were out of any luck.
Nigeria were aggressive both with and without the ball and played superbly, giving England no time to take control of the match and dictate play, causing them plenty of problems from crosses into the box and hitting the bar on two occasions.
They themselves were unlucky not to be given a penalty in the second-half when Lucy Bronze lived life dangerously on the edge by putting her hands on the back of one of their forwards, VAR not stepping in though to change the on-field decision this time around.
This game pretty much summed up England’s World Cup so far, struggling to find the back of the net and create clear cut chances, while defensively they had to be brave, and at times just cling on.
The first-half should’ve acted as a wake up call, instead it was a heavily similar second 45 to the first one, Nigeria in control and looking more likely to score.
England showed glimpses of the free flowing and scoring football they played in the 6-1 win against China, Lauren Hemp putting her blistering pace to good use and getting in behind the defence, but still failing to create any clear cut chances.
Daly had England’s best chance of the game when a corner found her unmarked in the box, but her powerful header was saved excellently by the goalkeeper, before came the moment of madness from James.
James has been England’s diamond at the World Cup so far, she scored two and assisted three in the final group stage game win over China after belting in a brilliant effort to beat Denmark 1-0, but she failed to make the same impact in this game and got herself sent off in frustration.
If there’s one thing that’s for certain about this England team though it’s that you can never question their character or desire, they dug deep with 10 players and forced a penalty shoot-out, who was feeling the luckier of the two sides now then?
A nation that up until recently had a bad track record with the dreaded shoot-out, even just the mentioning of one in any knockout match was enough to send the people watching into sheer nervousness, but these Lionesses had beaten Brazil in their last one, and the fact that they had battled so hard with a player less suggested that they were definitely going to go down fighting.
First up was fellow Cumbrian and Bayern Munich midfielder Georgia Stanway, Stanway had scored England’s opening goal of this World Cup from the penalty spot in the first match against Haiti, having her first effort saved before scoring the re-take after the keeper had moved off her line.
She couldn’t get England off to the perfect start here though, pulling her effort wide, a chance for Nigeria to take an early advantage.
Up stepped Desire Oparanozie, a substitute who came on in the 114th minute specifically for the shoot-out it appeared, but she too pulled her effort wide, chance gone.
Two penalties down then, two misses, time for some composure now, Beth England keeping her penalty straight and simple as she placed it down the middle to nudge England into a 1-0 lead.
Michelle Alozie tried to follow suit, only she blazed her penalty kick right over the bar, before Rachel Daly smashed hers into the top left corner to put her England team well and truly in the driving seat.
Nigeria responded, Rasheedat Ajibade getting them up and running in the shoot-out, but England were unfazed, defender Alex Greenwood slotting her penalty in meaning England only needed to score or save one of the remaining four spot-kicks to progress to the last eight.
Christy Ucheibe prolonged it all a bit longer to drag it to 3-2, but England’s hero from last year’s historic European Championship win at Wembley in Chloe Kelly made sure that England weren’t heading back on a plane just yet with a penalty very similar to the earlier one of Daly’s, and wrap up a 4-2 win on penalties.
Job done, mission accomplished, plenty to work on still it seemed, but in knockout football it’s all about being able to hold your nerve and not crumble when the going gets tough and that’s exactly what England did.
They could’ve just thrown in the towel after the red card and accepted their fate, but Sarina Wiegman has installed a mentality into her players that means they never seem to quit or give up, and that’s exactly why they are still in this tournament.
You can’t help but feel sorry though for Nigeria, they were excellent and executed a perfect game plan for 120 minutes before coming undone in the shoot-out.
Kelly might’ve scored the winning penalty but she never celebrated at first, instead she consoled the Nigerian shot stopper and captain Chiamaka Nnadozie, pushing the cameras away in a true act of sportsmanship.
A game that almost slipped away from them, but one they managed to rescue, now onto the next match, hopefully with less drama.
From one World Cup in the Southern Hemisphere to another, a jump from England’s football heroics in Australia to the ones of despair in South Africa for the netball team.
The Roses had placed themselves in the history books already after beating defending champions New Zealand in the semi-final, reaching the final for only the second time, and securing a first silver medal in the tournament since 1975.
I don’t follow the sport that much but I kept a close eye on all the action, and despite losing 61-45 in the final to now 12-time champions in Australia, it does show just how much sport is excelling for our country at the moment, not going to mention the rugby union from Saturday though.
For me I was also intrigued by some of the collisions I saw all over social media from a sport that is deemed ‘non-contact’.
All I’ll say is there was quite a bit of contact in some of those videos, and I was just waiting for someone to drop their shoulder in and clean someone out!
Speaking of contact sport though did anyone watch the Jake Paul and Nate Diaz fight?
I’ll be completely honest, I have very little interest in these YouTube boxing stuff and even UFC, so this was almost worst case scenario for me really.
Despite Jake Paul clearly being someone I can only describe as arrogant, its that arrogance that makes him so appealing to the sport and to everyone watching.
His brother Logan has showed the same through his time in WWE, they both know how to promote the content they are producing which can make them like marmite where you either love or hate them but, they’ve brought an entirely new audience to boxing and to WWE and that can only be a good thing moving forward.
That isn’t even judging their in-ring ability, because I can obviously pass zero comment having never boxed or wrestled, but the fact is when either one of the two are on the TV screen they entertain to the audience watching, and that for me makes them hugely talented.
I had the fantastic opportunity when I was at university to speak to one of boxing’s most well known pundits in Steve Bunce, despite it being heavily centred around the football World Cup that was going on at the time, we did have a small chance to discuss this new audience in boxing which Jake Paul has brought along and that definitely altered how I viewed it all I’ll be honest.
Before that I was just looking at him as a human being, I didn’t like how he went about things and held himself in the public eye, but then I looked at what he was potentially doing for the sport he was involved with and saw a completely different side.
Bunce said about this new audience that he was bringing in, which could only benefit the sport, and that’s exactly what sport needs to have to survive long-term.
Every sport needs to be able to bring in new viewers, no matter what the case, it needs to bring that next generation through, which is why the Racing League in horse racing can be seen as a positive idea.
The need to make content engaging and exciting to the public has probably never been higher, because if people don’t like something these days they definitely don’t waste their time continuing to watch something, they’ll just turn it off.
That’s also where having content on-demand where people can watch all the episodes at once to a hit series can work for and against them companies.
Yes the content is that engaging people want to be able to view it as soon as possible, but it also opens things up more to spoilers to people who don’t have the time to watch everything straight away.
Obviously that isn’t an issue really in sport though, because if someone likes a sport the chances are they will always follow it, like supporting a football team for example.
Links in nicely to the Community Shield final that I think doesn’t it? Almost like I planned it so I could seamlessly transition into it.
Anyways, I only managed to listen to the final 30 minutes of the second-half of the match on the radio, and I thought when I got in my car to drive home that Manchester City had won it.
In fact I didn’t realise Arsenal had won until I started scrolling through my phone, and while people view it as pointless I think it gives the team who wins it a big confidence boost for when the season actually starts.
They needed that after the way they fell off the wagon towards the end of last season did Arsenal, and I think it will install that belief back into the players again that they can be Premier League champions.
I do see them and Manchester City battling it out again at the top with Liverpool and Manchester United involved, mainly because I think how Tottenham do depends entirely on the Harry Kane situation and Chelsea are just a team I can’t follow with any confidence.
At the other end of the table it could end up being tight again, especially for me as a Wolves fan.
Sheffield United for me I think will struggle, as will Luton, and both of them will go back down again I reckon.
That last spot though is interesting, I think Burnley will stay up, while the likes of Wolves, Everton, Crystal Palace, Bournemouth and even West Ham could find themselves in a tussle down there.
I’ll be bold and say that the last spot will be filled by Nottingham Forest, just because even though they did well last season to stay up I feel as though it might just not be enough this time around.
There’s no doubt it’ll be close though, it all depends on how everyone starts I guess.
Newcastle are going to be the interesting team this season I reckon, they could potentially end up finishing anywhere from first to eighth, but if they continue where they left off last season then it could be a very good year for them indeed.
To finish off this week’s blog piece then I’m going to talk about just a few other little bits and pieces that’s been going on for me.
I felt encouraged in this blog to give my opinions on the Premier League table mainly because I had seen my friend Alex McMonnies do his on Twitter or X now as it’s called, won’t catch on I don’t think but, who knows.
His table was very solid and represented exactly how I was feeling about this season, but I also wanted to point out that I gave him two winners at Chester races yesterday as well.
We never talk about the ones that lose, we’d be here all day quite frankly, but it does now want me to talk quickly about horse racing and what’s been going on.
Glorious Goodwood was anything but that on Saturday with the rain forcing it to be abandoned eventually, but it was great to see the Frankie Dettori farewell tour add another bow to its feathered hat by picking up a winner during the week.
Dettori has been brilliant for the sport and he’s such a character as well which doesn’t seem to come along that often now and he’ll be a miss once he’s officially retired, who knows though, we might see him in I’m A Celebrity at one point maybe.
Currently there’s now a two week break in the jumps season so that everyone can relax before the wetter and colder weather swoops back in and makes it ideal for some winter jumping.
Sean Bowen though has been riding out of his skin at the top of the championship, and deservedly leads the way.
Brian Hughes has been quieter through these summer months than usual which suggests to me he’s going to be really busy this winter, and that should make great viewing in the race to be champion jockey.
For now though I’m off to continue the job hunt, and relax from my weekend of refereeing, catch you all again shortly, and please let there be no Wolves talking points for the next piece like this one.
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