Netherlands vs Sweden: Dutch into Women's World Cup final after Jackie Groenen winner
Re-live all the coverage from the second semi-final of the Women's World Cup
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Your support makes all the difference.The Netherlands will play the United States for the Women's World Cup title after Jackie Groenen sealed a 1-0 victory over Sweden in extra-time on Wednesday night.
A slick passing sequence ended in the 99th minute with Groenen driving a shot from outside the penalty area past goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl.
The goal that broke the deadlock in a sweltering stadium set up a meeting between the European champions and the reigning world champions. Re-live the action below:
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Good evening and welcome to The Independent's live coverage of Netherlands vs Sweden in the Women's World Cup semi-finals.
The Netherlands are into last four after seeing off Italy in the quarter-finals and in Vivianne Miedema and Lieke Martens have two of the very best players in the tournament.
They won't have it all their own way against Sweden, however, after they knocked out Germany to reach the semi-finals for a fourth time.
The victors will meet USA in Sunday's final after the 2015 winners beat England on Tuesday night.
We'll have all the latest updates from Lyon throughout the evening.
Let's first take a look at last night's dramatic semi-final where the USA clinched a 2-1 win over the Lionesses of England. Here's how it happened:
Lionesses put women's football on the map
But it wasn't all bad news for the Lionesses. Their semi-final against the USA was the most watched television programme of 2019 so far drawing in an audience of around 12 million people.
Lucy Bronze 'completely disagrees' with criticism of England's penalties
In the dying minutes of the first semi-final, England were awarded a penalty after VAR showed Ellen White had been knocked in the box.
Captain Steph Houghton stepped up to take it only to have her shot saved. It was the third penalty England missed during their World Cup campaign and certainly the most costly.
Understandably their penalty takers have found themselves under a microscope but England right-back, Lucy Bronze, 'completely disagrees' with the criticism they've been getting.
Here's what she had to say:
More lessons for England
"I’ve moved on from this already,” Phil Neville said in the post semi-final press conference. “I've started [looking forward] already. I was in a room this afternoon planning the next two years. It's the way I work. It's fast.”
But surely, those are hollow words from a manager who's entire driving force was to win the World Cup with England.
Once Saturday is out of the way, it will be time to slow down and return to this defeat with a cold, analytical eye.
But what lessons can England take from their defeat?
Netherlands vs Sweden
But that was yesterday, England went out and the USA await for either the Netherlands or Sweden, but who will it be?
Netherlands vs Sweden team news
Netherlands
van Veenendaal, van Lunteren, van der Gragt, Bloodworth, van Dongen, Groenen, Spitse, van de Donk, Beerensteyn, Miedema, Martens
Sweden
Lindahl, Glas, Fischer, Sembrant, Eriksson, Bjorn, Seger, Jakobsson, Asllani, Hurtig, Blackstenius
Team news
Netherlands make only one change to the starting XI that saw off Italy in their quarter-final. Shanice van de Sanden drops to the bench with Lineth Beerenstyen replacing her.
There's two changes for the Swedish team that stunned Germany in the quarter-finals. Nathalie Bjorn and Lina Hurtig come in to replace Elin Rubensson and Fridolina Rolfo.
How did they get here?
The European champions, the Netherlands, won Group E with three wins out of three before overcoming Japan in the round of 16.
They faced a surprising side in Italy during the quarter-final but came away with a 2-0 victory to set up this clash with Sweden.
Sweden, for their part, came second in Group F after losing against the USA. They defeated Canada 1-0 in the last 16 before coming from behind to shock Germany 2-1 in the quarters.
Now they face the Netherlands, who knocked them out of the 2017 European Championship with a 2-0 quarter-final win.
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