China W vs England W prediction: WORLD: World Cup Women betting tips on match 2023-07-31 11:00.
The landscape in the Women’s World Cup (WWC) Group D couldn’t be more finely poised ahead of the final game day as Asian champions China could force the fair play record to settle qualification, should they and Denmark win by a 1-0 scoreline. Such an outcome certainly isn’t beyond the realms of possibility as all games in this group have produced exactly one goal so far, including China’s win over Haiti and defeat to Denmark.
China boss Shui Qingxia has described her side as “no easy piece of cake” for England, and she will be hoping to guide her side to a place in the quarter-final after dropping out in the round of 16 last time around. Yet hopes of such a positive outcome may not be high as, barring a handful of friendly wins over banned nation Russia, you’d have to go back to 2018 for China’s last victory over European nations (D3, L10).
As for their opposition, England now need just a point from this game to mathematically guarantee progression thanks to their pair of 1-0 victories in the opening rounds. The England boss Sarina Wiegman has a selection headache after the influential Barcelona midfielder Keira Walsh was stretchered off before half-time in round two, yet Wiegman will hope her Lionesses have enough to beat a side she says are “in transition”.
England may enter this clash with revenge on their minds after most recently losing 2-1 to China in 2015 before reaching the first of two consecutive WWC semi-finals. Aiming high once again, the fact that no England WWC game since the third-place playoff of 2015 has been level after 90 minutes (W7, L2) may suggest they won’t be settling for just the required point here.
Players to watch: China’s Shuang Wang scored both of China’s goals in their latest victory over England and it was also her penalty goal which sealed their only win at this WWC. Barcelona and England full-back Lucy Bronze was part of the 2015 side that lost to China, yet she still needs a goal to maintain her record of scoring at every WWC she’s featured in (G3, A2).
Hot streak: Each of England’s last six WWC victories came without reply.