England Beats Sweden on Penalties

England made it through to the UEFA Cup Women's semi final. I started watching the game when Sweden were ahead two-zero, and from what I saw of the first half I frankly thought England was done. They nearly conceded a third goal, but the goalkeeper saved them. During this half the English defense was terrible. And I think they were down rightfully. I actually thought Sweden would have it easy in the second half.

The second half was not really what I expected, in fact I saw way more Swedish attack in the first quarter of this half than what England made. I also saw a few elbows that I think merited at least a yellow, but the Spanish referee did not agree with me. Well England made some substitutions and they worked because around the 80 minute, and in just two minutes they scored two goals. Full time expired and we headed to thirty minutes of extra time.

Again I think Sweden played better than England during these thirty minutes but it seems they had lost their confidence. In any case the thirty minutes finished without any goals so went to penalty shots. And boy, those were some penalty shots. 14 penalties and England won 3-2, better said England missed 4 and Sweden missed 5. The English penalties were stopped by the Swedish goalkeeper most of the Swedish penalties were kicked out of the goal. I understand after 120 minutes of playing the girls were very tired, but a penalty just has to be kicked hard to a corner and the goalie isn't getting there. Very bad look for both teams on penalties. And they are all professional players.

It was an entertaining game though, let's see how England does against Italy.