Women’s Euros semi-finals set after dramatic quarters | OneFootball

The quarter-finals were tight affairs for all but one tie, Spain v Switzerland, with two games going to a penalty shoot-out and one with the winner scored in added time. Italy are the unexpected team to reach the semi-finals and will play England, while Spain will meet a tired and wounded German team dealing with suspensions.

Norway 1-2 Italy (Geneva)

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Italy scored late in the game to beat a disappointing Norwegian team that still cannot find the formula to accommodate their great individual players into a cohesive unit. Veteran Cristina Girelli had a brace for Italy and sent them through to the semi-finals.

Sweden 2-2aet England, 2-3 on pens (Zurich)

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England were really in trouble, 2-0 down and unable to find solutions until Sarina Wiegman threw on a triple substitution in the 70th minute and Chloe Kelly eight minutes later. Lucy Bronze and Michelle Agyemang scored to get the game level and England qualified in a penalty shoot-out where the quality was poor, to say the least. Seven penalties taken on each side and three converted for England and two for Sweden says it all.

Spain 2-0 Switzerland (Bern)

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The most one-sided quarter-final, with Spain far superior and missing two penalties, yet still winning 2-0 against the hosts, who had a great tournament promoting women’s football in the country.

France 1-1aet Germany, 5-6 on pens (Basel)

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A whole book could be written on the facts that prevent France from going past the quarter-finals of a tournament. This was their ninth defeat at that level out of twelve attempts since 2009. It is an unbelievably bad record considering the quality of players in the squads through the years.

Germany had a player sent off after thirteen minutes and a penalty was given to France. Geyoro scored it and you would think France would cruise that game. They did not. They were incapable of mounting serious attacks, recording 0.63 xG from open play. In total, with added time, it went to 127 minutes of play for France with 11 v 10 and they did nothing interesting really, except for a good play that ended with a goal that was offside. Such failure to get anything creative is perplexing, but then you remember it has been going on for 16 years now. Dominating, but not scoring.

Ann-Kathrin Berger in goal for Germany was superb, and the referee became unsurprisingly lenient with both sides after the early red card, not booking French and German players for repetitive fouling and kicking. The game should have finished 10 against 9, if yellow cards had been distributed according to Law 12.

Germany are now in trouble for the next game, as they will have two players suspended, Hendrich and Nüsken, and two injured defenders, Gwinn and Linder. It will be a fascinating game against Spain.

Semi-final ties

Tuesday 22 JulyEngland vs Italy (Geneva, 21:00 CET)

Wednesday 23 JulyGermany vs Spain (Zurich, 21:00 CET)

England have a really good chance of making the final if they can perform as well as they are supposed to.

There is also important news that came through in the last few days: defender Jess Carter has been subjected to racial abuse since the start of the Euros.

England are working with the police to deal with the offenders, but as always social media platforms are allowing it by not moderating the content. These racist attacks have nothing to do with Carter’s performances on the pitch, she is just an easy target for those people. Media in the UK also have a responsibility for promoting those views, especially the right-wing papers.

Players are already subjected to such scrutiny over their private lives on social media, and if you add more layers by enabling racists to carry on unpunished, we will end up in a situation where players use social media as a corporate tool and nothing else.