BRISBANE, Australia, Aug 7, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - England scraped into the

quarter-finals of the Women's World Cup when they beat Nigeria 4-2 on
penalties in Brisbane on Monday.

Despite Nigeria having the better of the chances, the European Champions --
reduced to 10 players after 87 minutes -- snuck home in front of 50,000
spectators after the match had finished 0-0 at the end of extra time.

England held on after playmaker Lauren James received a red card for a
needless stamp and will know they have to improve if they want to add the
World Cup to their European crown.

They will face Colombia or Jamaica on Saturday for a place in the semi-
finals.

England got off to a terrible start in the penalty shootout when Georgia
Stanway fired wide, but Desire Oparanozie couldn't take advantage and missed
with an almost identical effort.

Beth England made no mistake, but Nigeria's Michelle Alozie shot way over top
to give England an advantage they never surrendered, sealing the win when
Chloe Kelly calmly converted.

"The first thing is we really stuck together as a team," said England coach
Sarina Wiegman.

"It was a very, very hard game, then we had a red card but we made it through
extra-time and then won on penalties.

"How we did that, and how the team just kept going, I'm so proud of them."

"It says so much about this team. Not one game has been easy and we knew and
knew before this game it will not be easy."

The Lionesses, who last year won the European Championship at a packed
Wembley Stadium in London, were expected to win comfortably against the
world's 40th ranked team.

The Nigerians, however, have shown in this World Cup that they have the game
to challenge anybody.

They stunned hosts Australia in the group stage, taking advantage of their
speed in the transition to score a 3-2 win.

And they employed the same tactics against England, whose back three were
regularly exposed by the Nigerian attack.

- 'We were unlucky' -

"They're very organised, very transitional, very physical and that's exactly
what we saw," said Wiegman of Nigeria.

"But we made it through and I'm really happy."

Nigeria coach Randy Waldrum was proud of his side.

"To come in here and play the way they did tonight, I though we were every
bit as good (as England)," he said.

"We had every opportunity to get the result and unfortunately we didn't get
it done.

"Obviously we didn't execute on our penalties and when it gets to that point,
it's anyone's game.

"We had the best chances, we hit the crossbar twice in regulation play. We
were a bit unlucky not to get something out of it.

"But credit to England, they are a great side."

England started the match strongly and rattled Nigeria in the opening
skirmishes as the Lionesses found plenty of space out wide.

They also controlled possession, completing 173 passes in the first half to
Nigeria's 83.

But it was the Nigerians who looked the most dangerous and they gave the
European champions a real fright on a number of occasions.

England-born Ashleigh Plumptre had two golden chances to open the scoring,
the first coming in the 16th minute when a strike from outside the box
crashed into the crossbar.

A minute later she forced a fine diving save from Mary Earps.

The Nigerians had eight shots at goal in the first half, three more than
England, whose best chance fell to Alessia Russo in the 23rd minute.

The second half followed the same pattern, but England had a golden chance to
seal the match with 15 minutes left only for Chiamaka Nnadozie to pull off a
fine save from Rachel Daly's powerful header.

In extra-time, Nigeria again looked most likely, Michele Alozie and Oshoala
both going close, but neither team could break the deadlock.