Five things we learned as England scraped past Nigeria to reach World Cup quarter-finals

England are through to the Women’s World Cup quarter-finals for the fifth successive tournament, although beating Nigeria in the last 16 to get there was certainly no easy feat.

After 120 goal-less minutes and the Lionesses riding their luck more than once, as well as Lauren James sent off, it took a penalty shootout to eventually prevail over the Super Falcons.

Nigeria were by far the better team overall and appeared to have a clear game plan where England didn’t. Given that Sarina Wiegman’s team were coming off the back of their best performance of the tournament after thrashing China in the group stage, it was a return to the kind of lacklustre display that previously saw the Lionesses only scrape past Haiti in their opening game last month.

With Keira Walsh named in the starting XI after recovering from the knee injury that had ruled her out of the China game, it was hoped that England would kick on and dominate proceedings.

But that isn’t how it panned out. Nigeria’s relentless press and squeezing of space through the middle ensured it was a constant struggle for the Lionesses to build any sort of rhythm. In turn, it meant the Super Falcons were well placed to force mistakes and create chances of their own.

This was the same 3-4-1-2 system that in use against China, but with a totally different outcome.

Nigeria have demonstrated how to stifle and suppress England, which could serve as a blueprint for other teams later in the competition. The onus is now on Wiegman to address the weaknesses that were exposed and come up with solutions.

A more clinical team than Nigeria might have dumped England out of the World Cup long before the game went to extra-time and penalties. The Super Falcons hit the crossbar in either half and