Italy will face the Netherlands in the Women’s World Cup quarter-final on Saturday afternoon after a dramatic win over Japan.
It kicks off on Saturday at 14.00 UK time (13.00 GMT), while the other quarter-finals are Norway-England, France-USA and Germany-Sweden.
The Dutch side thanked a brace from Lieke Martens, but above all her ice cool stoppage-time penalty to decide the 2-1 victory.
Italy will face the Netherlands in the Women’s World Cup quarter-final on Saturday afternoon after a dramatic win over Japan.
It kicks off on Saturday at 14.00 UK time (13.00 GMT), while the other quarter-finals are Norway-England, France-USA and Germany-Sweden.
The Dutch side thanked a brace from Lieke Martens, but above all her ice cool stoppage-time penalty to decide the 2-1 victory.
It was a very controversial decision, as Saki Kumagai seemed to be doing everything possible to get her hand out of the way of Vivianne Miedema’s strike, but the penalty was confirmed after a VAR check.
Yui Hagesawa completed a great team move with her lofted finish over the on-rushing goalkeeper to equalise and Japan threatened repeatedly to take the lead in the second half, including Hina Sugita and Yuika Sugasawa rattling the woodwork.
Martens had opened the scoring with a delightful back-heel flick from a corner.