Vancouver (Canada): England ended host Canada’s dream at the Women’s World Cup 2-1 on Saturday to advance to their first semifinals at the tournament where they meet defending champions
Japan, 1-0 winners over Australia.
Early goals from Jodie Taylor and Lucy Bronze dampened the cheers of the capacity 54,027 crowd in BC Place Stadium and kept England on track after losing their opening game of the tournament against France.
England follow on from their first win in a World Cup knockout game against Norway in the last 16. “They’re history makers again, only the third ever English team to get to a semifinal, we join that ‘66 and ‘90 club,” said coach Mark Sampson referring to the England men’s team.
“The dream’s over, it’s not how we imagined it to end,” said Canadian counterpart John Herdman. “We hadn’t written the script to be 0-2 down that early. Gutted, gutted for all of Canada. They (England) were hard to break down. They went for it, good on them, they got their tactics right and won the match,” he added. Earlier Japan outplayed a gritty Australia but needed an 87th minute goal from substitute Mana Iwabuchi to advance in their quarter-final game in Edmonton.
