Olympic dream over for England despite Scotland thumping
Ruthless England thumped Scotland in their final Women’s Nations League group match but it was not enough to top the table after the Netherlands scored two injury-time goals against Belgium to deny them in a dramatic finish.
That means the Dutch are through to the Nations League semi-finals and, as a result of England’s exit, Team GB now will not be in the Paris 2024 Olympics football competition.
England needed to better the Netherlands’ result by three clear goals to reach the Nations League finals and keep Team GB’s Olympic hopes alive.
A determined first half saw goals from Alex Greenwood, Lauren James with two and Beth Mead before Fran Kirby made it 5-0 just after the break.
But as the game entered stoppage time, the Dutch went 3-0 up against Belgium and the Lionesses needed to produce a sixth goal to put qualification back in their sights.
Lucy Bronze delivered in the 93rd minute with a headed effort but as relief seemed to take hold at full-time, the Netherlands scored a dramatic fourth goal to ensure they won the group ahead of England.
England would have secured Team GB’s place in Olympics football had they reached the Nations League final.
As England huddled at full-time to await the result of the Netherlands match having scored six goals, they must have felt they had done enough to progress.
The odds were heavily stacked against the Lionesses with a three-goal margin separating them from the Dutch, but they were in fine goalscoring form in Glasgow and the mountain they had to climb started to look smaller.
Northern Ireland 1-6 Republic of Ireland
Wales 0-0 Germany
Netherlands 4-0 Belgium
Luxembourg 1-1 Lithuania
Turkey 2-0 Georgia
Azerbaijan 1-0 Faroe Islands
Montenegro 2-0 Cyprus
Israel 4-1 Estonia
Kazakhstan 4 -1 Armenia
Bulgaria 2-2 North Macedonia
Andorra 0-0 Moldova—BBC
