England ended their Women’s World Cup campaign in third place as an extra time penalty from Fara Williams gave them victory over Germany in the third place playoff.

Steph Houghton was involved heavily in the opening period preventing Germany’s opener before having her own scoring opportunity, but couldn’t take it. An uneventful remainder of the first half followed with Sara Dabritz having the next chance of any recognition 52 minutes in, with the game still remaining goalless.

England applied the pressure late on with both Alex Scott and Houghton having great chances in the last 15 minutes but the lack of conversion meant that the game went to extra-time.  Melanie Leupolz had the only opportunity during the first half of extra-time, before Williams converted the winning penalty just after the restart.

Strong start for Germany

England could have easily been behind only eight minutes in without the heroics of captain Houghton. A header from Blanca Schmidt caused confusion between goalkeeper Karen Bardsley and Josanne Potter with the defender’s header looking a certain own goal but Houghton did brilliantly to acrobatically clear it off the line.

Three minutes later England had their own opportunity to take the lead when Lucy Bronze did brilliantly to get the ball to the by-line, before cutting it back inside the box to Houghton, but the skipper couldn’t get the right touch to it and the shot rolled into the arms of Nadine Angerer.

The rest of first half turned out to be quite the scrappy affair with either side unable to really break down the other.

Second half

Germany had to wait until the 52nd minute until they had another opportunity of any recognition when Sasic curled an excellent ball into the area, which found Dabritz who hit the strike on the volley, but Bardsley did brilliantly to claw it away to keep the scores level.

With 15 minutes left to play England had an excellent opportunity to take a late lead. Substitute Eniola Aluko played an excellent through ball to Scott but one too many touches saw the opportunity go begging. The ball came out to Karen Carney out on the right who put a good cross in towards the back post, but Scott couldn’t get a significant touch to it to put it towards goal.

England were applying the late pressure with Bronze picking up the ball in the 89th minute before playing another good ball into the area to Lianne Sanderson who teed it up for Houghton with the last opportunity of normal time but her swerving shot was well over the target.

Into extra time

Leupolz had the only real opportunity of the first half of extra-time when she was teed up on the edge of the England penalty area, but the strike was well over the crossbar.

Just a minute after the restart for the second period of extra-time England were awarded a penalty, Sanderson looked to give Tabea Kemme the slip but the defender held her back and despite the German protests referee Ri Hyang Ok awarded the spot kick.

Despite attempts to put her off William’s stepped up to the spot and coolly sent Angerer the wrong way nestling the set piece in the bottom right-hand corner to give England the lead. It was her second penalty in two games, and the celebrations were glorious.

Fighting off late resistance from Germany, England held on to complete a historic win.

England hang on for victory

This was an excellent win for England after the late heartbreak that they suffered in the semi-final with Japan, and have proved that they are now competitive beating one of the best women teams on the planet. They can return home with a sense of pride as well as a bronze medal to their name.

Germany were one of the favourites to go the whole way in the tournament and looked to be heading that way in the group stages, however seemed to lose their way towards the back end of the tournament. They'll be disappointed with how their campaign ended, sufffering their first ever defeat to England.

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About the author
Danial  Kennedy
Award-winning sports journalism graduate. Currently studying a PR Masters at the University of Sunderland. Writing for VAVEL since August 2014. Twitter - @ddkjournalism.