, Guardiola etc – can twist the template of 4-3-3 as and when circumstances demand. They looked far better with Russo and Hemp up front so it makes sense that Wiegman pushes ahead rather than drifting back to the comfort blanket of the tried and trusted. Much of the build-up has had echoes of the men's 1990 World Cup quarter-final against Cameroon and the lessons of pre-match complacency learnt on that day. England will certainly not be underestimating Nigeria who came through a very tough group at the expense of the Olympic champions Canada with draws against the Canucks and the Republic of Ireland and a startling, thrilling victory over the hosts, Australia. Randy Waldrum, their campaigning head coach believes Nigeria, with star forward Asisat Oshoala 'fit and ready to go' and Desire Oparanozie healthy to return after injury, is capable of reproducing the kind of game that shocked the Matildas at the same venue 11 days ago. 'You can see the talent is there,' Waldrum said. 'I think Nigeria could become a world power if we start to do things properly and invest more in women's football ... like so many other nations need to be doing as well.' 'I have to give credit to the players. It's something that's inside them. It's inside their DNA to compete,' he said. 'Overcoming obstacles is what they've done for their careers. It's a challenge – we know what the top teams in the world have, and we're aspiring to have those same things. But in the moment, we are where we are. It really comes down to trying to get the team organized and get the maximum out of each individual player and the talent they bring to the table.'){kind=link}
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The shooting practice for the England forwards down in front of us is seeing a much higher success rate than in the previous games, when there were a lot of wayward efforts in the warm-ups and the strikers hadn’t scored yet. Since the 6-1 win over China, confidence appears to have soared. Alessia Russo has just hit the bottom corner with three first-time strikes from the edge of the box in a row.
What we have seen in this tournament is that nothing is easy. The growth of the game has shown in this tournament. We’ve not had an easy game at all and that’s what we expect [from Nigeria] – that it will be very competitive and we need to be at our best.
Everyone who plays us wants to beat us. That’s nothing new. What we have seen in this tournament is game is developing really quickly. The games have been very competitive. Nobody can be complacent because that’s inappropriate. It’s very tight.