The Lionesses are through to the 2023 Women’s World Cup final for the first time in history after beating Australia 3-1 in a stressful but stunning semi-final performance.
Both England’s women’s team and the Aussies impressed in both halves, seeing out what was a tightly-contested opening half-hour, in particular, before Manchester United‘s Ella Toone unleashed an absolute rocket of a shot to take the lead in the 36th minute.
While Toone had been somewhat quiet in the tournament up until this point — the usually prolific attacking midfielder scoring twice at the Euros and grabbing a handful of goal contributions in the Women’s Super League last season — she quickly silenced any doubters with this emphatic finish.
However, given how hard they fought in the opening 45, Sarina Wiegman‘s side were never going to have it easy and after both teams were guilty of struggling to put together prolonged periods of passing, Australia came out of the traps in the second half.
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Scrapping tooth and nail for every ball, it was always going to take a real moment of quality to shake England‘s rhythm and confidence and that’s exactly what happened.
The equaliser came from the Socceroo’s star forward and one of the best players in the women’s game, Sam Kerr, who buried just as good a finish if not even better, leaving the Lionesses in need of a big reaction.
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But, just as we knew they would, the girls didn’t disappoint and just eight minutes after Kerr levelled things up, Manchester City star and arguably England women’s MVP this tournament, Lauren Hemp, restored their lead by chasing down two Australia defenders and managing to get a shot off. Persistence.
She never stopped chasing down the ball and she got her reward.
A ridiculously huge goal.
But they didn’t stop there…
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As those watching in the ground at home nervously prayed for them to hang on to the narrow lead, former United star Alessia Russo polished things off with a fine third in the 86th minute to secure the win for the Lionesses against the host nation.
And that’s it: the England women’s team are through to their first-ever World Cup final. Massive.
With Sweden having been beaten 2-1 in the other semi-final on Tuesday, the Lionesses will now play Spain for their chance to lift the Women’s World Cup and further cement themselves in football immortality.
European and World Champions, all within just over a year — sounds alright, doesn’t it?
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Come on, just one more game to go. It’s coming home.
Details released of Andy Burnham’s meetings with Manchester City owners while Mayor
Emily Sergeant
Details of Andy Burnham’s meetings with Manchester City owners during his tenure as Mayor of Greater Manchester have been released.
In case you need bringing up to speed on the situation a little first, Manchester City was found guilty back in September all of its charges related to the Premier League’s financial rules over a nine-season period, and on top of that, was also found guilty of the majority of charges in relation to its failure to co-operate with the League’s investigation.
According to the Premier League, the independent Commission found that Manchester City had arranged so-called ‘sham’ commercial deals with a number of its sponsors.
These were part of a disguised funding scheme – with those sponsors only required to pay a portion of the relevant sponsorship fees.
The remainder was then funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG), which owned the club.
The Commission also concluded, as quoted by the Premier League, that the club had ‘made concerted efforts to stop and frustrate the Premier League investigation’.
Within the past week or so, it has since come to light that now-Prime Minister Andy Burnham had dealings with Manchester City during his tenure as Greater Manchester Mayor, and Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has now issued a public statement, giving details on the matter and what these ‘dealings’ entailed.
A spokesperson for GMCA confirmed that Burnham had a ‘formal meeting’ with Man City Chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, back in October 2021.
The statement reads in full: “In October 2021, Andy Burnham, in his role as Mayor of Greater Manchester, had a formal meeting with Khaldoon Al Mubarak at the UK Government’s Global Investment Summit arranged by the Department for International Trade.
“In his capacity as Mayor, he was a guest of Manchester City FC at home matches on a small number of occasions, including attending Vincent Kompany’s testimonial match in September 2019, where he met the Chairman informally in the stands. These have been declared in the usual way.
“Also during his time as Mayor, representatives of Greater Manchester sporting clubs would routinely join business delegations as part of Mayoral international visits.
“This included representatives from Manchester United travelling to Austin and Dublin, Lancashire Cricket Club joining a delegation to India, and Manchester City FC staff supporting visits to China and Japan.”
Featured Image – Lauren Hurley / Number 10 Downing Street (Press Image via Flickr)
Sport
Multiple arrests made for ‘tragedy chanting’ and police officer assault as Man City defeated Liverpool
Emily Sergeant
Multiple people were arrested over the weekend as Manchester City defeated Liverpool in a Premier League clash.
Merseyside Police have confirmed that a total of 10 people were arrested during the policing operation at Liverpool’s home ground of Anfield as they hosted Manchester City on Sunday 11 October.
One man was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police constable, five were on suspicion of tragedy chanting, one on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly, two for affray, and one on suspicion of throwing items onto the pitch.
Police are now appealing to the public, and are particularly looking to speak to witnesses of the assault of the officer.
At around 6:35pm, as fans left the stadium, a police officer sustained a ‘serious facial injury’ during the arrest of a man on Anfield Road, and was subsequently taken to hospital for treatment but is now recovering at home.
Investigating officers are now conducting enquiries, speaking to witnesses, and analysing CCTV and camera phone footage.
Chief Inspector Leanne Hobin said it’s ‘extremely disappointing’ that an officer has sustained a serious injury while carrying out their duty.
“I hope the arrests send a clear message and act as a deterrent to others,” Chief Inspector Hobin continued. “Anyone who engages in this abhorrent behaviour risks ending up in custody and getting a criminal record.
“Despite the actions of a few, the overwhelming majority of the 60,000 fans in attendance behaved well and I want to thank them for their co-operation.”
Manchester City ended up defeated Liverpool 3-0 during the Premier League clash at Anfield.
Danny Jones -
16th August 2023 
