England rally around Steph Houghton after World Cup penalty heartbreak

Lucy Bronze has praised Steph Houghton’s bravery and says nobody should hold the England captain responsible for their World Cup semi-final defeat by the USA.

Houghton’s 82nd-minute spot-kick was saved by Alyssa Naeher as the Lionesses went down 2-1 to the holders in Lyon on Tuesday night.

Houghton stepped forward after Nikita Parris was hooked from penalty duty for misses against Argentina and Norway, despite England coach Phil Neville insisting pre-match that she would take the next one.

The TV audience in the UK peaked at 11.7million, a record for a women’s football match, and at one point commanded 50.8 per cent of the TV audience, making it the most-watched programme of 2019 so far.

Right-back Bronze said: “Steph knows exactly what we all think of her.

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"I think everyone in the nation will take their hats off to her, given the amount of pressure. The blame is not on her.”

Houghton is Manchester City’s regular penalty-taker and Neville claimed the decision was based on months of research. “For six months, we have gone into the most in-depth have gone into the most in-depth practice and analysis — and then we miss three at the World Cup,” he said.

“We spoke to Nikita and agreed that the next best penalty taker on the pitch would take the next one. It was not by chance. It was six months of [analysing] 100-150 penalties the team has taken.”

Last night, Houghton said: “I got told today I was on penalties and I was confident because I had been scoring all week. But I didn’t connect properly and the goalkeeper guessed the right way.”

England now go into Saturday’s third-place play-off in Nice against either the Netherlands or Sweden having missed three of their four penalties in the tournament, but Bronze said: “It’s ridiculous to say our penalties aren’t good enough.

In Pictures | England vs USA, World Cup | 02/07/2019

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"Nikita has done some superb penalties, the keepers have made fantastic saves. I think we’re too harsh on the penalty takers sometimes. We scored one this tournament and we’ve scored them in the past. I don’t think it’s an issue.

Ellen White won the decision via a VAR review, after being caught by Becky Sauerbrunn. The striker earlier equalised with her sixth goal of the tournament, cancelling out Christen Press’s opener, and had a 68th-minute strike ruled out by VAR for a fractional offside after Alex Morgan restored the USA’s lead.

“I wasn’t going to take the penalty,” said White, who is level with Morgan in the race for the Golden Boot. “The staff make that decision, I don’t. Of course [I’d take one] if they asked, but we do it in training and they take it off stats.”

Neville, who described the World Cup as the “best ever” in terms of quality, insisted he was looking ahead to Saturday and the Tokyo Olympics.

“The minute the game finished, my first thought was how to win Saturday,” he said. “My second was how to win Olympic gold. We need to be better, get the two or three per cent that will make us the best. I won’t stop until we get there.”

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