A brief look back at the women’s Euros semi-final between England and Italy that took place last night and a large photo gallery.
Last night saw the first semi-final of the women’s European Championship, between England and Italy in Geneva, which lies near the base of a mountain pass connecting Switzerland to Italy. This post looks back at the match.
SO NEAR AND SO FAR
Italy took the lead just before half time, through Barbara Bonansea, against the form books, which made England firm favourites. They held on to that lead until close to to end of normal time. 19 year old Michelle Agyemang equalized in stoppage time, of which there was quite a lot. Extra time saw a lot of pressure from England and a lot of resistance from Italy. However, just as Italy were reckoning they had got themselves a shoot out and England were resigning themselves to going to penalties once again, a penalty was awarded to England. Chloe Kelly took responsibility for taking the kick. The Italian goalkeeper kept the penalty out but the ball rebounded into Kelly’s path and at the second time of asking she did put it in the net, and England were through at the last gasp, and had avoided the necessity of a second successive penalty shoot out. The final will take place in Basel on Sunday.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
The butterfly that appears in this picture and the next was a new sighting for me.This picture and the next four show three six spot Burnet moths that were on teazel heads only a few feet apart – two on one and one on the other.Two egrets at the Nar Outfall.
A look at yesterday’s Women’s Six Nations rugby match between England and Italy and a splendid photo gallery.
The Women’s Six Nations rugby got underway this weekend. Yesterday saw England facing Italy.
A MATCH OF TWO HALVES
England have not lost a Womens Six Nations fixture since 2018, and last year they kept Italy scoreless. The first half hour of the match continued this pattern, and by that stage England had already secured the bonus point for scoring four or more tries. One of those was 35 year old Emily Scarratt’s 55th international try. Rosie Galligan had a try chalked off for not being fully in control of the ball, but the replay also showed an earlier Italian infraction which caused the referee to award a penalty try (seven points, since one of the rules governing penalty tries is that they are always considered to be converted, without the kick having to be taken) and send the Italian offender to the sinbin for 20 minutes. Near the end of the first half Italy did actually score, with Francesca Sgorbini touching down, but that made little difference to the overall score line, which reflected England’s dominance.
The second half was very different, with Italy fighting like tigers. Sgorbini briefly thought she had her second try of the match but it was chalked off bu the TMO. England also had a try disallowed. Over half an hour into what was threatening to be a scoreless half Amy Cokayne scored an undisputed try. The final score was England 38 (six tries, three conversions and the automatic extra two points for the penalty try) Italy 5 (Sgorbini’s unconverted try) and England fully merited their win, but Italy deserve credit for the fight they showed in the second half, when they might have caved an allowed an absolute monster score to be posted against them.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off (don’t forget that you can view images at larger size by clicking on them)…
My sister had booked a table at this establishment for Sunday dinner last night.A redshank near the Nar outfall (as you will see I took several photographs of this bird).two for one on bees!Close up emphasising the two bees.The full picture…from which this (one spider, two bees and some purple flowers)……this one (close focus on the two bees)……this one (focus on the smaller bee, with the spider also on the image)……and this one (the bumblebee the solo star) were all extracted.
aspiblog 