It took three hours to decide the winner of the first leg between Australia and France, with ten rounds of penalty kicks suffocating the crowd.29-year-old goalkeeper Arnold really helped. She kept out many of France's necessary goals during 120 minutes of regulation and extra time. When she took a crucial penalty kick in the penalty shootout, she saved four.
In this game, the Australian team faced "death" twice, but finally came forward, which is a kind of spiritual quenching for them, will certainly make the team more united and cohesive.
Australia have good players, striker Russo has 3 goals, Foord has 2 goals and a helper, Kightly also has 2 goals, midfielder Van Egmond, Fowler has been excellent and with the hosts advantage they are more likely to play with morale and pace.
Kerr, the number one player for Chelsea in the Premier League, returns and is in increasingly good form. Her familiarity with the England team will greatly improve Australia's overall attacking and defending capabilities and pose a huge threat to England.
England, by contrast, are the "giants" of the game. They have reached the quarterfinals of the last two World Cups. They won the Women's European Championship last year and are now favorites to win the World Cup.
The English players basically play in the local league, which is not only a good understanding, but also a more luxurious squad, with "high-end" configurations in both offense and defense. James, Hamp, Russo, Walsh, Brigitte, etc. are all powerful players.
However, in addition to their impressive performance in winning all three of their group stage matches, England faced Nigeria, ranked 40th in the world, in the 1/8 final. After 120 minutes of regulation time and extra time, England fell short of goals and underperformed, eventually securing a thrilling victory on penalties.
In the quarterfinals, the game against Colombia was also dangerous. They conceded a goal first. If it wasn't for the mistake of the Colombian goalkeeper, the result would have been really hard to say. The fact that they scored 10 goals and conceded 2 in the first five games, but only scored 2 in the knockout rounds, shows that the team is not integrated enough as a whole, and there are some problems in both offense and defense.
A bigger problem for England is that the "number one" James, who has contributed three goals and three assists, has been suspended for two matches but is still unavailable. Her absence has had a big impact on the team's setup and organization of the attack. Despite the presence of Caicedo and other talented attackers, the results have not been satisfactory.
Overall, the two teams were comparable and it was reasonable to see who won and who lost. However, the Aussies are sitting at home and have a much stronger fighting spirit. The host's advantage could be the winner and loser of this battle. I'm afraid England are fierce.
However, Australia's game against France in the last round was quite exhausting, and it's not easy to say whether the physical ability to support the crowd in this game will be there, making it promising for England to bounce back!
