England survive Nigeria scare, Australia also into quarters

BRISBANE, Australia, Aug 07 (AFP): England survived the sending-off of Lauren James to scrape past Nigeria in a penalty shoot-out on Monday and were joined in the Women's World Cup quarter-finals by co-hosts Australia.
European champions England will play either Colombia or Jamaica in the last eight on Saturday, but they got there the hard way.
Chloe Kelly scored the winning penalty in Brisbane as England beat Nigeria 4-2 in the shoot-out after a tense last-16 tie finished 0-0 at the end of extra time.
England had a major scare before a crowd of 49,461, having come through the whole of extra time a player short following the 87th-minute sending-off of James for a stamp on Nigeria's Michelle Alozie.
Coach Sarina Wiegman, who welcomed key midfielder Keira Walsh back into her side after injury, called it "a very, very hard game".
"How we did that and how the team just kept going, I'm so proud of them," said Wiegman, whose side are regarded as favourites to take the crown from beaten holders the United States.
Georgia Stanway put the first penalty of the shoot-out wide for England, but Desire Oparanozie and Alozie followed suit, both missing the target with Nigeria's first two attempts.
Beth England, Rachel Daly and Alex Greenwood all scored for England before Kelly converted the decisive kick.
"It's amazing, anything that's thrown at us we show what we're capable of," said the Manchester City forward Kelly, who scored the winning goal in last year's European Championship final.
"We've been practising (penalties) a lot and it's working."
The defeat was cruel on Nigeria, the world's 40th-ranked team, who followed up their impressive performances in the group stage by pushing England all the way.
Their England-born defender Ashleigh Plumptre crashed a shot off the woodwork in the first half and Uchenna Kanu also hit the frame of the goal.