In the Stade Océane in Le Havre, China and Spain will face each other on Monday evening before the final day of Group B. Germany has already finished, while this will logically be at the expense of South Africa. In fact, it is certain that the winner of the upcoming game will continue, while in a tie, Spain will continue.
China:
Whether it is China or the opponents in the pool remains a mystery, but the matches of China are terribly boring. A sleep-inducing duel was played against Germany and it was not a sparkling show against South Africa either. Although the games were not too exciting, China played very strong. Against Germany, only 1-0 was lost in a hard-fought duel. China is a fairly big name in women’s football and is very gifted both physically and technically. The media talks about the Chinese wall, since they are full of praise for defending the Chinese. They come out with super-fast counter attacks and are not averse to a violation or card. Li Yang is the player who has to score the goals.
In Paris it was also Li Yang who made the winning hit against South Africa, and it was also the only hit of the Chinese. When she scored the goal in the fortieth minute, China thought it was fine. They sat back and let South Africa play football. Was it self-confidence or fatigue? China could drive Spain with even more goals, but that didn’t happen. They won the game with only 1-0, and thanks to Spain’s victory over South Africa (3-1), Spain now needs one point for survival.
Spain:
After having reached the quarterfinals in the European Championship in the Netherlands two years ago, it is up to Spain to prove itself at a world championship. The previous edition in 2015 went very badly and they flew out in a pool with Costa Rica, South Korea and Brazil. A few years later, Spain is very different. The southern European country now only needs one point to advance to the eighth final, which would mean that Spain will survive the group stage of a World Cup for the first time. Spain is therefore not entirely comparable with the status of men’s football, because among women they are in 13th place in the FIFA world ranking. If you see the Spanish ladies playing soccer, it seems like a special case. They direct the game, dominate the ball, create one chance after the other, but the ball does not want to go into the net.
The same problem was visible during the week. In Valenciennes they played against the big Germany, but this went better than expected. They had more possession of the ball (63%), more shots, more corner kicks and a higher pass accuracy. How is it possible that the result did not materialize? Silvia Meseguer went twice against the German goalkeeper twice, but did not keep her cool. It was the captain Marta Torrejon who eventually gave Germany the goal as a gift. She hesitated too long for her own goal and that allowed the German to slide the ball in like that. That was the only goal and with that Spain has worked in a tight situation.
PREDICTION: Spain W to win @ 1,90
