Spain and Japan superior to the quarter-finals on the girls’s World Cup on Saturday following wins over Switzerland and Norway respectively.
Aitana Bonmati scored twice in Spain’s 5-1 demolition of the Swiss who had reached the last-16 with out conceding a purpose throughout their progress by Group A.
That statistic modified inside 5 minutes at Eden Park in Auckland. Switzerland goalkeeper Gaelle Thalmann managed to save lots of Alba Redonda’s shot however Bonmati rammed dwelling the rebound.
The opening was good response to Spain’s 4-0 loss to Japan of their final sport of Group C.
Even after Laia Codina put by her personal web to deliver the edges stage, Spain remained on the entrance foot and continued to dominate possession.
Redondo restored the benefit after 17 minutes and Bonmati bagged her brace within the thirty sixth minute.
Codina atoned for her sins on the stroke of half-time when she scored Spain’s fourth. Jennifer Hermoso added the gloss halfway by the second half.
“What I liked the most about the team was our competitiveness – how we went into the duels and how we won the duels,” mentioned Spain boss Jorge Vilda.
“The team approached the game well. We were very offensive and our football prevailed.”
The Switzerland striker Ramona Bachman conceded her aspect had been outwitted.
“It was just difficult,” mentioned the Paris Saint-Germain participant. “You could see that Spain was a class better. In the first 20-25 minutes we had a few good attacks, but we weren’t clever playing them through to the end.
“We wished to be harmful on the counter-attack, which labored out a couple of occasions within the first half, however not a lot within the second.”
Debut
In their first quarter-final appearance at the World Cup, Spain will take on either the Netherlands on South Africa who play on Sunday in Sydney.
Japan steamed into the knockout stages on the back of three wins in which their defence had not been breached while their forwards racked up 11 goals.
Futoshi Ikeda’s side were 1-0 up within 11 minutes against Norway in Wellington courtesy of Ingrid Engen’s own goal.
But Norway were level midway through the first period.
Vilde Risa raced down the right wing, crossed the ball into the penalty area where Guro Reiten rose to head past the Japan goalkeeper Ayaka Yamashita.
Risa Shimizu gave Japan the lead five minutes after the restart and Norway were picked off on the counter-attack nine minutes from time. Hinata Miyazawa raced onto Aoba Fujino’s defence-splitting pass to guide the ball past Norway goalkeeper Aurora Mikalsen for her fifth goal of the tournament.
Japan, who fell in the last-16 during the 2019 tournament in France, will take on the winner of Sunday’s match between the defending champions United States and Sweden.
Originally published on RFI