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Manchester City

Ellen White makes difference as Team GB progress to Tokyo 2020 quarter-finals


It was far from a statement performance, certainly not one that will have turned the heads of the big guns.

But in Sapporo, there was proof that Team GB have one of the most reliable strikers at the Games and one of the world’s best players.

An Ellen White header from a Lucy Bronze cross was enough to send Hege Riise’s side through to the last eight of the women’s tournament.

In truth, it was a rare moment of quality in an attritional match but successfully navigating a passage through the group stage with a game to spare represents a satisfying start to Team GB’s Tokyo 2020 campaign.

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And apart from White’s decisiveness in front of goal, the one thing you can certainly take from the opening wins against Chile and, now, Japan, is that Riise’s set-up will be one that is hard to dismantle.


That is certainly a help in tournament football.

But Team GB will have to be more creative than this if they are to go all the way in this competition.

At least they came up with one stellar moment against the hard-working Japanese, Bronze taking advantage of Kim Little’s excellent hold-up play to whip over a cross that was converted by White.

White benefited from some static defending and from the ill-advised dash of keeper Ayaka Yamashita but the centre-forward’s intelligent run was at the heart of the winning goal.

That is three in two matches for White and eight in her last six appearances for England and Team GB.

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The Manchester City striker scored the winner against Japan for England in the SheBelieves Cup a year ago.

It was also a second assist for Bronze, whose tirelessness up and down the right flank was one of the few eye-catching features of a quite tortuous match.

White’s header was one of only two Great British efforts on target while the hosts could manage only one.

If it was entertainment you were after on this Olympic football Saturday, then the China-Zambia shindig was the place to be.

In a game that finished four apiece, Zambia’s Barbra Banda became the first woman to score back-to-back hat-tricks in the same Games.

There was never any chance of those sort of fireworks in Sapporo.

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This was always going to be the toughest group test for Riise’s team but it should not have been this tough.

The first half of this contest was particularly dull, although Team GB did, at least, show a touch more attacking verve after the interval.

But there was barely a quarter of an hour left when White struck and if they avoid defeat in Tuesday’s final game against Canada, Team GB will top the group and face the team finishing third in either Group F or Group G.

That challenge would be eminently surmountable but Riise knows Team GB will have to step up a gear when the elite teams come calling.

However, in White and Bronze, Riise will also know that she has match-winners in her ranks.

And they are assets she would not swap with anyone.

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