England have suffered heartbreak at the semi-final stage of a World Cup for the second time in two years. Steph Houghton missed a late penalty after Ellen White had a goal ruled out by VAR for offside.
England Women Suffer Heartbreak in Semi-Final Defeat
Lionesses Rue Steph Houghton Missed Penalty
Twelve months after their male equivalents also exited a World Cup at the semi-final stage, Phil Neville’s Lionesses have been dumped from the competition at the same hurdle.
In what was an end-to-end affair, Christen Press gave the Americans an 11th-minute lead as she headed home to open the scoring.
Ellen White levelled the score with an instinctive finish as she netted her sixth goal of the competition; however, Alex Morgan headed a second for the USA just before half-time.
Although, clearly motivated by Neville’s words at half-time, White thought she had levelled for a second time with a low strike. The Lionesses’ celebrations were cut short, however, as VAR found White to be marginally offside.
White was then fouled in the penalty area with six minutes left leading to VAR awarding England a late spot-kick. However, Captain Steph Houghton was unable to beat Alyssa Naeher from twelve yards though; England’s dreams of reaching their first Women’s World Cup final were shattered.
‘A Fantastic Ride’ For England Women
England manager Phil Neville was full of praise for Steph Houghton and the Lionesses after their semi-final exit.
“Football can be cruel,” he said to BBC Radio 5 Live. “We have had a fantastic ride. When we got the penalty I turned to my bench and said ‘we were going to win it,’ but it wasn’t to be.
“I cannot ask anything more from my players, they left everything out on the field. We knew it was going to be an open game and I felt they were starting to run out of steam in the second half.
“We only had a ten minute period in the first half where we played with the belief that we talked about but we stood off them too much. We weren’t going to come to a semi-final and back off and we will learn massively from this.”
Main Photo
