Last summer at the World Cup in Russia, England boss Gareth Southgate and his team became national heroes after they defied the odds to progress through the group stages and then two dramatic knockout games against Colombia and Sweden to reach the World Cup semifinals, where they succumbed to an extra time goal against Croatia to lose 2-1.
Despite that defeat, the England team returned home as heroes after a campaign that was far in excess of what many had expected with this young team. However, this summer, another England team will be competing at the World Cup and this England team has the added weight of expectation on their shoulders as the England’s Women’s Team are regarded as one of the genuine contenders to lift the trophy in France.
[featured_offer id=”1750″]The Lionesses Record
The story of the Lionnesses rise up the rankings in the women’s game started before the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, but in truth this was were expectations started to rise. Mark Sampson’s team had qualified for the finals convincingly, but they were drawn in a tough group with France, Colombia and Mexico. After losing their opening game to France, the Lionesses then produced two good displas to beat Mexico and Colombia, both by 2-1 scorelines to reach the knockout phase.
Here England began to excel, knocking out former winners of this trophy, Norway 2-1 in Ottawa before ending the host nation, Canada’s hopes with a 2-1 win in Vancouver. Japan lay in wait in the semifinal and two first half penalties, one for each side, saw the teams go in level, however despite having the better of the game, England succumbed to a dreadfully unlucky own goal two minutes into injury time, which sent Japan into the final.
There the Japanese lost 5-2 to the rampant United States but England bounced back to claim a 1-0 win over Germany in the third-place playoff to earn their highest ever World Cup Finals finish since 1966.
England built on that success in Euro 2017, when they topped their group winning all three of their games against Scotland, Spain and Portugal. They gained revenge over France, beating them 1-0 in the quarterfinals, but then found host nation the Netherlands too hot to handle as the Dutch thumped England 3-0 in the semifinal to send the Three Lions home one game short of the final once again.
Now with ex-Manchester United, Everton and England star Phil Neville in charge, the Lionesses have qualified once again for the World Cup Finals in France this summer. They have been drawn into Group D alongside Scotland, Argentina and Japan and in the lead up to the finals, they also won the She Believes Cup in the United States a couple of months ago, beating the United States, Japan and Brazil to the trophy, claiming wins over Brazil and Japan and drawing with the US to finish top of the table.
This is the first trophy that the English Women’s team have claimed and proved that they are capable of at least matching the top ranked side in the world (United States).
Key Players for the Lionesses
Phil Neville has used a number of players over the last few months but has seemingly whittled his squad down to around 30 or so players who stand a real chance of being in the 23 to travel to France this summer. Amongst that group are a number of key names who will certainly travel and who will be central to the Lionesses hopes of winning the tournament this summer.
- Steph Houghton (Manchester City)
The skipper of club and country, Houghton is a talented, left-footed centre half who originally started at left back. Physically strong and very dangerous at set pieces, she us not only an accomplished defender but also a scorer of some valuable goals.
- Lucy Bronze (Lyon)
Arguably the best full back in women’s football at the moment. The 27-year old scored a stunning goal against Norway in the last World Cup, where she emerged as a genuine world talent. Good enough to play either as a full-back or further forward in midfield, she is athletic, highly technical and has a superb engine.
- Fran Kirby (Chelsea)
One of the most technically gifted of all England’s attacking players, Kirby has enjoyed a fantastic season domestically for Chelsea and has now started to produce a similar level of performance on the world stage for her country. She is currently injured but should be fit enough to return to the squad for the summer.
- Jodie Taylor (Reign FC)
A much-travelled striker who came to the fore in the European Championships two years ago where she finished top goalscorer. May have to split playing time with Toni Duggan, and Ellen White but she is a reliable goalscorer who has a real knack of scoring key goals. She is probably the most natural goalscorer of all the English forwards.
World Cup 2019
France will host the World Cup this summer and it will once again consist of 24 teams, who will start in an initial group phase with the 12 group winners and runners up, along with the four best third placed teams entering the knockout phase. The final will be played in the Parc des Princes in Paris on the 7th July and the first game kicks off on the 7th June between France and South Korea, also in Paris.
The draws for the six groups are as follows:
- Group A – France, South Korea, Norway, Nigeria
- Group B – Germany, China, Spain, South Africa
- Group C – Australia, Italy, Brazil, Jamaica
- Group D – England, Scotland, Argentina, Japan
- Group E – Canada, Cameroon, Netherlands, New Zealand
- Group F – Chile, Sweden, United States, Thailand
England’s potential route to the final.
If England win Group D then they will line up against a third placed side in their first knockout phase game and that is likely to be one of either China, New Zealand or Chile. This will likely then be followed by a quarterfinal tie against either Italy or Norway.
However, should England progress from those two games, then another big test would lie in wait in the semifinals with the current holders the United States their most likely opponents in the semifinal. A win there could well see them reach the final where it seems likely that Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, Canada or Brazil would be their most likely opponents.
It is going to be interesting to see how the Lionesses perform in France after two good performances and semifinal positions at their last two major events. Only a place in the Final would represent progress and after the win in the She Believes Cup, many experts have England as the favourites for the title heading into France. A friendly defeat to Canada may have tempered expectations a little but that may not be a bad thing for a talented team who will be watched by millions of fans this summer.
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