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Team Canada has been eliminated from the FIFA Women’s World Cup with a 2-1 loss to England.
England’s quarter-final victory Saturday at B.C. Place in Vancouver sends them through to the semi-final for the first time ever at a Women's World Cup.
The sixth-ranked English squad struck twice early in the first half, stunning the sell-out crowd of 54,027.
Jodie Taylor opened the scoring in the 11th minute for England. Canadian defender Lauren Sesselmann miskicked the ball and lost her footing, and Taylor took possession of the loose ball and rifled a shot to the back of the net.
The Lionesses extended the lead shortly after when Fara Williams sent a free-kick from the right side to the back post and Lucy Bronze leaped above the Canadian defence and headed the ball off the crossbar, into the net in the 14th minute.
England almost took a 3-0 lead near the end of the first half, but Katie Chapman’s header bounced off the top of the crossbar and out of play.
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Canada captain Christine Sinclair trimmed the lead in half with her goal in the 42nd minute, sending the home team to half-time trailing by one.
Canada pressed hard throughout the second half, but were unable to find an equaliser.
“It’s not how we imagined it all to end. You win this game and you hope to go all the way through,” said Canada Head Coach John Herdman. “Congratulations to Mark (Sampson) and his team, and they were very hard to break down. I’m just disappointed for all of Canada. We had good shape and good rhythm, but this is football at this level. The players can be proud walking out of here tonight. I can guarantee those fans that we gave our best, but our best just wasn’t quite good enough.”
Canada fired 14 shots toward the goal, but only three hit the target in the match. The Canadians also had a significant advantage in possession, 58 per cent compared to England’s 42 per cent.
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England had eight shots, and four shots on goal. England had 21 fouls compared to Canada’s 15.
“To get a result in that atmosphere against an incredible Canada team was an amazing result. I’m really proud of women’s football today with a sell-out crowd,” said England Head Coach Mark Sampson. “This team has shown incredible character and resilience throughout the tournament. There two (knockout) games have been about staying in games and getting results. It was pretty darn tense on the sideline. Credit to John (Herdman) and Canada, they made us fight for every single ball.”
Defender Steph Houghton of England was named the player of the match.
England will travel to Edmonton for the semi-final against Japan on Wednesday.
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