The 2023 edition of the Women’s World Cup is rapidly hurtling towards the latter stages of the tournament, with history repeatedly made throughout already.
The first knockout round is the books, with eight matches delivering eight winners and eight more teams on the plane home from Australia and New Zealand.
The United States were among those going no further, remarkably knocked out prior to the semi-final stage for the first time ever. Nigeria also showed that the gap between the established top nations and the rest of the world is smaller than ever after giving England a serious run for their money.
There was much more comfortable progress for the likes of Spain, Japan and France.
Read on to see who made it into 90min’s team of the last 16…
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GK: Zecira Musovic (Sweden) – The United States flattered to deceive in the group stage, but they would still have made it to the quarter-finals but for the Chelsea goalkeeper’s 11 saves.
RB: Ellie Carpenter (Australia) – Defensively strong to prevent Denmark getting a foothold but also progressed the ball up the pitch well.
CB: Amanda Ilestedt (Sweden) – Continues to have an outstanding tournament, this time with her defensive resilience rather than her goals the bigger talking point.
CB: Magdalena Eriksson (Sweden) – Led by example at the back against the United States onslaught and scored a peach of a pressure penalty in the shootout.
LB: Ashleigh Plumptre (Nigeria) – Powerful in the air and fierce in the tackle, stopping England in their tracks. She even hit the woowork and forced a decent save against the country of her birth.
CM: Aitana Bonmati (Spain) – Back to her best after a disappointing end to the group in a rampant team performance, scoring twice and assisting two others.
CM: Christy Ucheibe (Nigeria) – Patrolled the midfield for the Super Falcons, breaking up play and destroying England’s rhythm. That lack of space eventually led to Lauren James’ frustration.
CM: Jill Roord (Netherlands) – Another goal for the superstar Dutch midfielder as her country cruised past South Africa and into the last eight.
RW: Alba Redondo (Spain) – The Levante forward has ended up thriving out of the situation that has dogged the Spanish team thanks to consistent chances. Another goal and assist for her.
ST: Kadidiatou Diani (France) – The new Lyon signing took time to find her feet at this World Cup but is bang in form now, scoring and then assisting twice in the first 23 minutes of this round.
LW: Eugenie Le Sommer (France) – Making a mockery of the decision by the former regime to leave her at home for Euro 2022, netting twice more as Les Bleues thrashed Morocco.
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90 Mins
