Ottawa, June 23 (IANS) The United States missed a penalty kick but still saw off Colombia 2-0 to advance into the quarterfinals of the FIFA Women’s World Cup while England stunned Norway with a 2-1 comeback win in another match of the Round of 16.
Colombia surprised everybody on Monday with a brilliant first-half performance to play out a quite balanced 45-minutes when the US found no clear chance to score, reports Xinhua.
The turnaround came right after the break when Alex Morgan cut in with a through ball to face goalkeeper Catalina Perez, who brought her down outside the penalty area. Perez received a red card but Abby Wambach shot wide on her penalty kick in the 46th minute.
But the Americans did not wait long as Morgan shot pass substitute goalkeeper Stefany Castano in a close range after 53 minutes. They were awarded another spot kick as Megan Rapinoe was brought down in the penalty area and Carli Lloyd calmly converted it this time (66th minute).
Rapinoe and Lauren Holiday will miss the quarterfinal against China for two yellows on aggregate.
Underdogs England also produced an upset after Lucy Bronze scored one of the best goals in the tournament. After a modest first half, Norway took the lead via Solveig Gulbrandsen, who headed in a corner nine minutes after the break.
Nobody expected England level just seven minutes later as Steph Houghton got connection on a corner with her head in a fight with two defenders to put England level on 1-1. It was Bronze who scored the winner with a powerful strike outside the penalty area and goalkeeper Ingrid Hjelmseth only had time to palm the ball into the roof of the net.
England set up a meeting against hosts Canada in the last eight.