Defender Lucy Bronze scored a fine winning goal as England came from behind to beat Norway 2-1 in a second round Women's World Cup game on Monday and set up a quarter-final clash against hosts Canada.
The two technically skilled European sides largely cancelled each other out in the sweltering heat for the first hour and sixth-ranked England had to wait until the 76th minute to take the lead, Bronze thumping home a shot from 22 yards out.
England, who have now reached the quarter final for the third successive World Cup, will meet Canada on Saturday in Vancouver and fancy their chances against the home team who have largely failed to shine.
"We have an excellent record against this Canada team ... the momentum we got from this game will put us in a great place going into the quarter final," said upbeat England coach Mark Sampson.
With temperatures on the pitch hovering around 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) at the start, the players initially adopted a slow pace. Norway had two good chances in the first 45 minutes but could not beat England keeper Karen Bardsley.
Eleventh-ranked Norway, the 1995 World Cup champions, started to lose their dominance when Sampson took off tricky, diminutive midfielder Fran Kirby in the 54th minute and replaced her with the more imposing Jill Scott.
"I felt we needed to get a little tighter in midfield and gain more territory," said Sampson.
Seconds after the switch, though, Solveig Gulbrandsen broke the deadlock, getting her head to a corner at the near post and flicking the ball in off the bar.
But England started to look much the better team and deservedly drew level from a corner in the 61st minute when captain Steph Houghton outmuscled two defenders to score with a fine header of her own.
England have now won three in a row at this World Cup after losing their first game.
Norwegian coach Even Pellerud said his team had started to struggle with the pressure after half-time, especially in the wake of Houghton's goal.
"We should have finished the game in the first half and we didn't," he said, congratulating Sampson for the way he had changed England's tactics.
United States beat Colombia to set up China clash
The United States moved into the last eight of the Women’s World Cup thanks to second-half goals from Alex Morgan and Carli Lloyd in a 2-0 win over 10-woman Colombia.
The Americans will now face China in their quarter-final in Ottawa on Friday after Monday’s game at the Commonwealth Stadium turned in their favour shortly after half-time. Morgan was brought down just inside the area by Colombia keeper Catalina Perez who was promptly sent off.
Abby Wambach missed the resulting penalty but the incident played a part in the opening goal in the 53rd minute when substitute keeper Stefany Castano failed to deal with a near-post shot from Morgan which gave the Americans the lead.
The United States doubled their advantage 13 minutes later when Megan Rapinoe was brought down inside the area and this time Lloyd was given the penalty duties and made no mistake.
That put the game well beyond the South American team but their coach Fabian Taborda will surely take pride in the way his young team of amateur and semi-professionals coped against the world number two team.
Indeed, for large parts of the first half, the Colombians played the better football, moving the ball around midfield with composure and crispness.
The Americans in contrast were restricting themselves to long balls towards the head of their record goalscorer Wambach.
Perez had pulled off a superb save in the 14th minute to deny Wambach’s powerful snap-shot and then the University of Miami keeper showed great agility to tip over a Morgan header.
The Americans meanwhile suffered the blow of seeing two players who had come into the game one yellow card short of a suspension both pick up bookings.
The cautions for Rapinoe and Lauren Holliday mean they will miss the quarter-final against China and their absence may well be felt.
