ClapIt’s been a rollercoaster ride of a journey up to this point for fans of the Women’s World Cup, all of whom have been watching and waiting to see whether or not their team made it through to the knockout stages. For the most part the cream has been able to rise to the top in regards to just how good some of these nations are, but in others, there has been an aura of controversy surrounding proceedings – and it’s pointless pretending like VAR hasn’t played a pretty significant role in all of that.
Alas, as reported by BBC and The Guardian, there’s no time to dwell on things like that because as much as we want to, we’ve got to look ahead to the quarter finals. There are eight teams remaining in this hunt for glory, and we’d argue that all of them at least have an outside chance of getting the job done. We all know that the winner of France vs United States is probably going to be viewed as the favourite to win the tournament, but let’s not pretend like we haven’t already seen a surprise or two along the way.
Today we want to take a look at all four quarter finals, giving our thoughts and opinions on what we think will happen in the process. We could be way off base with some of our predictions, but in many ways, that’s the fun of a big international tournament like this, because you just never know what’s going to go down.
Norway vs England
Norway have been dark horses since day one, but we aren’t so sure that means anything if you’re simply the weaker team by a country mile in a quarter final tie. England are better in pretty much every department, and we can’t imagine them going out just yet.
France vs USA
The Americans were able to overcome a tough test against Spain, and we honestly believe that’s the hardest thing they’ll have to face in this tournament. Why? Because they’ve got even more momentum now than they did before, and France don’t strike us as being a team that can upset the status quo.
Italy vs Netherlands
The Dutch have been our underdog pick to make it all the way through to the final ever since play began, and their last minute win in the Round of 16 only helped to strengthen that thought process. Italy have been consistent and have flown under the radar a little bit, but we still aren’t at all convinced that they’re capable of going all the way.
Germany vs Sweden
Defensively speaking it is starting to feel like Sweden have what it takes to keep just about anyone out in this tournament, but of course, you’d be foolish to count out the Germans at such a key stage of proceedings. They’re going to push forward with some real volume from the first minute until the very last, and that could be enough to overwhelm the Swedes (and for what it’s worth, we think it will be).
