…To meet Giant Size Spain in 2nd Semifinal on Thursday at Midnight.
The Princess Lionesses of England on Monday morning at the Estadio Felix Sanchez in Santo Domingo came from behind to consume Japan 4-1 via penalty shootouts after a pulsating 2-2 draw at Extra time.
Japan opened scoring in the 23rd minute through defender Yuna Aoki from a Furuta pass but England bounced back with the equalizer in the 27th minute when Oboavwoduo gave Erica Parkinson a thorough pass.
Japan again took the lead when Hira Hirakawa scored in the 29th minute and VAR gave England a penalty advantage which was lost in 45+4 minutes only for Lola Brown to open the door of equalizer passing the ball to Zara Shaw who scored the vital goal in the 72nd minute and VAR refused to disallow the goal suspected to have been scored from offside. Shaw had scored in the 4-2 beating of Mexico when British Nigerian, Omotara was shown the red card.
The resultant penalty shootout was nail biting exerting on blood pressure as England scored all taken kicks through Lola Brown; Rachael Maltby; Laila Herbert and Zara Shaw in that order.
Japan lost her first kick through Tamami Aso; scored through Rika Nezu and lost her 3rd kick through Momoka Honda to drive the famous Honda vehicle back to Tokyo.
It was the first match at the 8th world U17 Women’s championship to be decided on penalty kicks under Ref Carly Shaw-Maclaren of Canada.
The Little Nadeshiko of Japan had won the title once in their 7 appearances which was in 2014; got the Silver medal twice in 2010 and 2016; and made quarterfinal stages four times in 2008; 2012; 2018 and 2022.
England in their three appearances at the mundial made best performance of 4th place at the first tournament in 2008 and a quarterfinal in 2016 in Jordan
And so 28 matches were played so far as at the end of the quarterfinals producing 85 goals with 60,327 people in attendances (2,155 per match) also with three Highest goal scorers in Shakirat Moshood of Nigeria; Rim-jong Choe of North Korea and Pau Comendador Prado of Spain.
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Although Moshood of Nigeria as at now stands to claim the Golden Boot but Choe and Prado stands a bigger chance to win that as they are still in the race to score more goals.
USA will clash with North Korea in the first semifinal on Wednesday at Midnight the 2nd semifinal will be England versus Spain on Thursday at midnight.
The 3rd place match for the Bronze Medal is scheduled for Sunday at 1930 hours before the grand finale at 2300 hours of same Sunday.
Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line.
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#BritishFA #JapaneseFA #USAFF.
