Dramatic top spot, England women's team loses spot at Paris Olympics

(NLDO) - After a fairly successful 2023 World Cup reaching the final, the England women's team unexpectedly lost the chance to attend the 2024 Paris Olympics because they failed to win first place in the 2023 Nations League group stage.

Early this morning (December 6), the "Three Lions" female players had a thrilling match in the goal difference race with the Netherlands to compete for the top spot in the group (group A1 League A) of the Nations League.

Traveling to Scotland, England quickly took a 4-0 lead in the first half. That helped female strategist Sarina Wiegman's team surpass the Netherlands (leading 2-0 against Belgium) to take the top spot in the group.

Lauren James scored twice to give England a 4-0 lead at half-time.

After the break, the "Three Lions" and "Orange Storm" women's teams continuously exchanged positions with each other when England led 5-0, the Netherlands quickly increased the score against Belgium to 3-0 in the first minute of extra time. Immediately after that, the England team increased to 6-0 to regain the top spot. It seemed that the top spot was set, but the Netherlands scored the 4th goal and officially took the top spot.

Playing with great effort, England secured a 6-0 victory thanks to Lucy Bronze in the 90+3 minute but...

The Netherlands still won the top spot with a better goal difference after a late goal in the 90+5 injury time.

At Hampden Park, England had been luckier in hitting the Scottish goal twice, and things might have been different. Now, the 2023 World Cup runners-up will stay home to watch the 2024 Paris Olympics in France.

Besides, they need to look back at the past group stage of the Nations League when England did not lose the opportunity in this morning's round. Because, the problem is with themselves when they lost in the trip to Belgium (lost 2-3), lost at home to direct opponent Netherlands (lost 1-2).

With the Nations League, the two finalists will join France as Europe's three Olympic representatives (or the third-placed team if Olympic host France reaches the final).

Netherlands, France, Germany and Spain are the top 4 teams in League A

"That's football. Holland scored a late goal and it was such a close call. We waited, it was a long minute. I don't really know what to say to the players. Because I'm really proud of the performance, but we didn't get out of the group stage and I'm very disappointed" - England coach expressed.

Having missed out on the 2024 Olympics, England have now missed out on the chance to cement women's football's place in the development of women's sport in the UK, having reached the finals of Euro 2022 (winning) and the 2023 World Cup.

The Nations League is a tournament organized by UEFA as part of the Women's Euro qualifiers. The tournament is divided into 3 divisions, determining the promotion and relegation of teams. League A will determine the top 4 teams in the group stage, which will determine the champion.

Meanwhile, the bottom four teams in each group will be relegated and play in League B next season. In addition, the four third-placed teams in League A will compete in a promotion/relegation play-off with the second-placed teams in League B.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/a-quan-world-cup-nu-tuyen-anh-mat-suat-du-olympic-paris-196231206092337528.htm