England ended the group stage with a 1-6 win against the China side whom we thought would give the Lioness a hard time on the field of play but it happened that the Lioness came with something different, I even thought it would end in a draw. Good win for the lioness, what a way to end the group stage.
In the round of 16 England are going to face the Super Falcons of Nigeria as it has been made official. I see that game as the clash of the Titans, no matter how poorly the Falcons may seem (performance wise), it won't be that easy for the Lioness and they're going to struggle to get a win, but I think it will go the Falcons way to win.
The Lioness may just seem to have found their rhythm at about the right the time, and a number players from the Super Falcons are pretty banged up, and playing with discomfort or the other, but there is still quite a time for them be in better shape than they were against Ireland.
It should be a great clash indeed and battle of wills, because the Falcons are quite as good in the midfield areas while having two of the most dangerous attackers in Europe too, but England would need to go through a difficult task of dominating the middle of the field if they are break the Falcons, Imo.
Today's fixture looks like cliché to me, I'm taking the England, USA and Denmark all to win their respective fixtures @ over 2.50 Odds on local sportsbook,
while speaking of the groups standing itself. I think Portugal should be able slow the USA down a bit and you'd expect a rampant Netherlands to take it all out on Vietnam, so there is the chance of Netherlands finishing as group leaders, except if they themselves are not able to wreck havoc at Vietnam's side of the goal net.
As we predicted before and the Netherlands managed to beat Vietnam with a landslide score of 7-0 and managed to lead the group with 7 points. The United States also managed to become runners-up by collecting 5 points after a 0-0 draw with Portugal. Supposedly if they could beat the United States then the opportunity to occupy the runner-up position was very open Portugal, but that did not happen after ending in a draw.
Vietnam lost in quality to the Netherlands so it was very difficult for them to balance the match and I didn't see a balanced match in that match. An interesting match between Portugal vs the United States, even though in the end the match had to end in a draw.
My major surprise of the would be the defending champions inability to get all 3 points too, however, that may still not seem to have affect them from getting a better opponent for the round of 16, but if their performance remains below this par, I'm afraid they wouldn't stand a chance to defend the title.