England’s footballers missed out on taking part in the Paris 2024 Olympics in a highly dramatic long-distance duel. Even a 6-0 win against Scotland was not enough for the World Cup runners-up and European champions at the end of the group games in the Nations League on Tuesday in Glasgow.
That was due to the parallel game: their rivals the Netherlands, who had the same points in group one, beat Belgium 4-0 with two goals in stoppage time and were ultimately one goal better in the final score. The Oranje team made it to the semi-finals and can continue to dream of Paris 2024.
Alex Greenwood (13th), Lauren James (38th/39th), Beth Mead (45th+1), Fran Kirby (50th) and Lucy Bronze (90th+3) scored for the English women at Hampden Park. Shortly before the end in the King William II Stadium in Tilburg it seemed that the Netherlands would remain 2-0 and England would have been first in the table. Then Damaris Egurrola struck twice after the end of regular time (90th + 1/90th + 5) and made the final score 4-0, which meant that her team moved past England.
Lots of discussions beforehand
In the semi-finals, the Netherlands could also meet the German team, which managed to advance despite a 0-0 draw in Wales on Tuesday evening. World champions Spain and France are also there. The semi-final with the group winners will be drawn next Monday. Two European places for Paris are still up for grabs. The third ticket has been awarded to France as the Olympic host. If the French women reach the final, a win in the game for third place is enough to qualify.
The long-distance duel between the Netherlands and England had caused a lot of discussion in advance. If England had qualified for the Summer Games, the team would have been allowed to compete there as a team for Great Britain – the plan was to make up the team with players from Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Therefore, the Scots around Samantha Kerr from German champions Bayern Munich could have benefited from a heavy defeat on the last matchday. If the Dutch hadn’t scored two goals in stoppage time.
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