3-time champion and reigning champion the United State of America made history by becoming the 1st team to make 3 successive women's world cup final after they defeated the Lionesses of England 2-1 in the 1st semifinal, their 5th final appearance in 8 world cups, they will now play the reigning European champion, the Netherlands who defeated Sweden 1 nil in the 2nd semifinal, to reach her 1st ever world cup final.
ENGLAND 1-2 USA:
With the quality of the opposition improved, the United State group-stage scoring spree has considerately reduced, as they battled past Spain and host France with a slim 1-goal-margin win and they faced another stiff opposition from the Lionesses of England who had improved with every game, they scored 3 goals each in their last 2 knockout matches against Cameroun and Norway, conceded just 2 goals in the 5 games played prior to the tie against the USA.
The United State started with the early ascendancy and call England stand-in goalkeeper Carly Telford to an early save inside 5 minutes, with England pushed back and limited to defending, the United State made their early pressure counted in the 10th minute when Christen Press nodded in a delightful ball from marauding right-back Kelley O'Hara, to take the lead, United State's 6th goal inside 15 minutes in the 6 matches played in the tournament so far. The goal seems to steer England up as they levelled 9 minutes later, another quality cross from Beth Mead was side-footed into the net by Ellen White past the flat-footed USA goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher, White now has 6 goals in the tournament. It was end-to-end stuff from there on. United State then edged ahead again in the 31st minute, another great ball into the box by Lindsey Horan was nodded in by Alex Morgan who joined White with her 6 goals of the tournament. At the other end, England's Keira Walsh called USA's goalkeeper Naeher into a top-draw save in the 32nd minute with a long-range effort. The entertaining half ended with the United State still holding the 1-goal advantage.
The 2nd-half didn't start with the explosion of the 1st, however, England had a dangerous free-kick in the 50th minute and was nearly poked in by Ellen White but Naeher safely dealt with the threat. England was let off the hook in the 58 minutes when Press robbed the ball off Milkie Bright but she played the ball wide. England thought they had their equalizer in the 67th minute when White cooly finished from a Jill Scott flip, however, White was adjudged to be marginally offside. England had a chance to level from the spot-kick in the 83rd minute after VAR's called Becky Sauerbrunn to have tripped and denied White a clear scoring chance but England captain Stephanie Houghton's weak effort was saved by USA's Naeher. England's job was then made even harder when Millie Bright was sent off in the 86th minute for a 2nd yellow card. No further goal in the half as United State ran away with a 2-1 victory.
NETHERLAND 1-0 SWEDEN:
Just like the United States of America, the Netherland is one of the few teams with a 100% record in the tournament so far, they had scored 10 goals and conceded 3, they made history by reaching the quarterfinal for the 1st time ever when they defeated 2011 champion Japan 2-1 in the round of 16 and it got better with a quarterfinal 2-0 victory over Italy and then faced a dogged Sweden for a place in the Final. Sweden aiming for a place in the final for the 1st time overcame a difficult quarterfinal contest against 2-time champion Germany but faced a difficult test against a Dutch side who defeated them 2 nil in the European championship in 2017.
With clear cut chances few and far between, the 90 minutes ended goalless, thanks to wonderful saves from both goalkeepers(Sari Van Veenendaal in goal for the Dutch and Hedvig Lindahl in goal for Sweden), with both sides hitting the opposition goal post(Nilla Fischer for Sweden and Vivianne Miedema for the Netherland). The match went into extra-time and the Netherland found the breakthrough 9 minutes into the 1st 15 minutes of the extra-time, Jackie Groenen fired in a fierce low shot from outside the box to beat Lundahl in Sweden's goal and sent the Dutch players and their fans into jubilation. It could have been 2 nil in the dying minutes of the extra-time had Shanice van de Sanden passed the ball to Miedema rather than fired wide, however, Netherland held on to win 1 nil and meet the USA in the final.
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