England boss Sarina Wiegman was quick to insist that Lauren James will learn from the experience of being sent off for a reckless stamp against Nigeria on Monday morning. James had been one of the Lionesses’ best performers at the Women’s World Cup before letting herself down by stamping on Nigeria forward Michelle Alozie following a battle for possession with her opposite number.
Alozie was laying flat on the floor after tangling with James, who was seemingly furious at having lost the ball in spite of her best efforts. She briefly sat on top of her opponent as she clambered to her feet before a needless stamp on Alozie’s back saw her dismissed for violent conduct with only a few minutes of normal time remaining.
James was initially shown a yellow card by the referee before a VAR intervention saw her punishment upgraded to a straight red, leaving her team-mates a player down for the rest of the match. England went on to scrape through the tie on penalties after 120 minutes of football ended goalless before Wiegman was quizzed on the incident that saw James sent off, which resembled David Beckham’s infamous red card against Argentina at the World Cup in 1998.
“She’s young,” replied the England boss. “This is just a split second and she doesn’t want to harm anyone. It’s later on in the game, so you get a little bit tired too.
“It’s such an intense and emotional game that in a split second where you just don’t control your emotions, then things happen. Of course, she didn’t want to do that, but before she’d even realised it had happened. Very unfortunate. She will absolutely learn from it.”
James will be banned from playing in England’s quarter-final meeting with Australia at the Women’s World Cup as a result of her sending-off against Nigeria, who managed to provide the Lionesses with a stern test in Brisbane on Monday. They hit the woodwork twice and went close on several occasions in extra time before England prevailed on penalties to keep their tournament hopes alive and kicking.
Wiegman went on to insist that her England players did not underestimate Nigeria after they were previously warned about the dangers of complacency following their narrow victory over minnows Haiti in the group stages.
“We didn’t expect it to be easy,” she added. “I give a lot of credit to Nigeria. I don’t think I have ever been in such an intense game. It was very intense and competitive.
“Women’s football has changed forever and we don’t expect any game to be easy. We have a couple of days to rest and figure out how we are going to approach it.”
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