The 2025 Quarter-Finals, Part One

 Greetings, gentle readers.

What we find is this: eight teams have muscled their way through the grueling group phase of the tournament, defying debilitating injuries and merciless marathon-lengths of games, with some stoppage times reaching ten minutes.  What we also find is that I have discovered this strange application called "Instagram."  In my previous articles on the Women's World Cup, I tried to include some nice colour photographs.  In this any any forthcoming posts, I will try to include Instagram links so that readers can visit the sites of players and teams for themselves and possibly interact with them.  This is all new to me, so I beg your forgiveness in advance, dear reader, should I neglect to include a particularly salient link.  I reckon that my convention for the moment is to put Instagram links on names within photo captions.

All this being said, on to the four quarter-final matches...

Norway v. Italy

In a match that elicited more groans of disappointment than yelps of joy, Italy edged past Norway thanks to two fine strikes from 35-year old captain and talismanic leader Cristiana Girelli.  

Captain Cristiana Girelli scores a brace

Two Norwegian players of note from my reports of the prior World Cup worked admirably to frustrate and confound the Italians - Guro Reiten and Ada Hegerberg.  The former appeared everywhere along the defensive line and occasionally made a lung-bursting overlapping run forward, while the latter nailed an equalizing goal in the second half despite missing her second penalty shot of the tournament.

In the end, it was Girelli's last-minute header back across her body from Sofia Cantore's startlingly accurate cross that proved the difference between two sides.  Italy looked the more composed and confident side, but the graft and effort of the Norwegians, combined with the scoring threat posed by former Ballon D'Or Féminin winner Hegerberg, almost forced this contest into extra time.

Italy progress to the semi-finals in no small part due to the efforts of Cecilia Salvai in defence and Manuela Giugliano in midfield.  Salvai in particular distinguished herself with her work on set-pieces and quarterbacking ball movement when transitioning from defence to attack in the Italian end.

Versatile centre-back Cecilia Salvai

England v. Sweden

England managed to scrape their way to the semi-finals and face the now-qualified Italians.  The Scandanavians leapt out to an early lead through superstar captain Kosovare Asllani before most spectators had found their seats.  After assisting on the second-minute goal, striker Stina Blackstenius threatened the England net on a couple of plays before scoring Sweden's second on 25 minutes.  England looked slow and clumsy throughout the first half, particularly when compared to the sprightly Blackstenius and Fridolina Rolfö up front for Sweden.  Chants of "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!", "Does Your Mother Know?", and "The Winner Takes It All" echoed around the Stadion Letzigrund in Zürich as signs boasting that "ABBA > The Beatles" waved through the crowd.

Superstar Kosovare Asllani

It was only after 78 minutes that tactics trumped talent.  England's powerful and athletic back line, led by the stalwart Lucy Bronze, had been charging, barging, and lunging at the Swedes for over five-sixths of the match.  Finally, the Swedes could take it no longer.  35-year old Asllani and 31-year old Rolfö limped off in the 78th minute to much applause from the delirious Swedish fans.  They were replaced by the younger Lina Hurtig and Madelen Janogy, but the English were also making a substitution at the same time – Chloe Kelly replaced Lauren Hemp, springing the trap.  

Supersub Chloe Kelly

63 seconds later, as the Swedes frantically tried to reorganize, Kelly pinged a perfect cross to the tireless Bronze, who nodded an excellent header beyond Swedish keeper Jennifer Falk.  Like Girelli's game-winning goal, it was scored at the far post.  Why is this an important and notable thing?  Because I said so.  Because I have always said so.

The Swedes were rocked by another searching Kelly ball that was smashed into the back to the Swedish net by Michelle Agyemang.  No team in the Women's European Championships had ever come back from a two goal deficit to win an elimination game, but England were threatening.

Extra time settled nothing, and the penalty shootout was laughably horrible, with some of the worst kicks ever seen on the world stage.  Kickers contrived to scoop soft, fluffy attempts directly into the arms of grateful keepers as well as miss the frame of the goal in all three ways.  Somehow, after 14 shots, only five had bulged the back of the old onion bag, and England had the better of it, three to two.

The first semi-final matchup had been established:  England v. Italy.

Unfortunately, I appear to run into the limit of my endurance for the moment.  I had no idea that adding all of these photos and links would be so exhausting and time-consuming.  I promise to return with my take on the remaining two quarter-final matches, including the colossal clash between the Germans and the French.

Until then, goodnight England and the colonies.

—mARKUS