Women’s WC: England tops Group D, China ousted

Adelaide, Aug 2: Lauren James contributed two goals and three assists as England thrashed China 6-1 to bag three consecutive wins at FIFA Women’s World Cup Group D and eliminated the Steel Roses from the tournament here on Tuesday. In the other Group D match held in Perth at the same time, Pernille Harder and Sanne Troelsgaard scored at each half for Denmark, beating Haiti 2-0 to qualify for the round of 16 as the group runners-up, reports Xinhua. Before the start of final round matches, England led Group D with six points, whereas both China and Denmark trailed with three points each. Due to the absence of injured key midfielder Keira Walsh, England head coach Sarina Wiegman shifted to a new 3-4-3 formation in lieu of her usual 4-3-3. China’s star forward Wang Shuang, who was benched for the first two matches’ initial halves, started for the first time. “I am proud of my team how we executed the new formation. Our strategy is always to use the quality of squad as much as possible. My players are very adaptable, so we can change shape easily. We were able to press high from the beginning and kept possession well,” Wiegman said at the post-match press conference. “We are growing into the tournament. In the first two games, we had some struggling moments and lost control of the ball. Today we hardly had moments like this,” she added. The European champions broke the deadlock only four minutes into the match, when Alessia Russo received the ball in the penalty area after a headed pass from James, slotting the first shot of the match into the left corner.