2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup: Martens Sends Netherlands To Quarter-Finals

2019 FIFA Women's World Cup: Martens Sends Netherlands To Quarter-Finals

             The Netherlands has finally made their way to women’s World Cup quarter-finals for the first time ever on Tuesday when Lieke Martens’ last-gasp penalty got them a 2-1 victory against Japan.

The Netherlands women’s national football team have played at the final tournament of the year 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup and made their way to the thirteenth place. This year, they started the tournament by winning against New Zealand.

The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup started its eighth edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup on June 7. The tournament was formerly known as Women’s World Championship. The tournament is going to conclude on 7th July 2019.

Back in March 2015, France won the right to host the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup event. There is a total number of 24 teams participating in the tournament and the matches are scheduled for nine cities across France.

Netherlands vs Japan match was held on 25 June 2019 at Roazhon Park, Rennes where Netherlands won against Japan with 2-1 victory scores. The star performer from Netherlands side as well as from overall match was Martens who backed up her team to move towards victory as well as to the quarter-finals.

Martens put the Dutch in front after 17 minutes, just for Yui Hasegawa in order to level on the hit of halftime, but the forward sent the European champions over with a spot kick in merely just last minute.

“We were standing in the circle after the match and we were so happy, yelling at each other,” said Netherlands coach Sarina Wiegman. “We will enjoy this victory and only tomorrow we will start thinking about Italy.”

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On the other hand, it was a major setback for Japan, who had won the 2011 World Cup as well as in the previous edition they have also reached to the final.

Japan coach Asako Takakura said, “We knew it was going to be difficult. We played really calmly but we needed to be more clinical. Towards the end of the match, in the second half, we created chances and it was unfortunate that we could not convert them. I’m really frustrated for the girls.”

The game was at a good pace and was in favor of Japan but the pace dropped after the break, where the Netherlands started controlling the match deprived of putting Japan under the cosh.

The game finally went to the Netherlands’ hands when Saki Kumagai handled the ball in the area and Martens then altered the resulting penalty. The Netherlands’ victory makes it certain that seven of the eight quarter-finalists were European.

Now, Netherlands is all set to take part in only their second women’s World Cup, where they are going to play against Italy in Stade du Hainaut, Valenciennes on Saturday after the Azzurre defeated China 2-0 in the previous match on Tuesday.

Now, all the quarter-finals teams are selected and their matches’ are also fixed. So, here are all the Quarter-finals matches, teams, dates and so on.

Quarter-finals

27 June 2019

21:00

Match 45: Norway vs England

Stade Océane, Le Havre

 

28 June 2019

21:00

Match 46: France vs United States

Parc des Princes, Paris

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29 June 2019

15:00

Match 47: Italy vs Netherlands

Stade du Hainaut, Valenciennes

 

29 June 2019

18:30

Match 48: Germany vs Sweden

Roazhon Park, Rennes

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