England have proved themselves too strong for Argentina by improving an 2-0 lead in the opening ten minutes to a 6-1 win in their last Group C match here on Monday.
With the near perfect victory, England reached the World Cup quarter-finals as the second finishers of Group A on 5 points, trailing the unbeaten Germany by two points after the defending champions beat Japan 2-0 on the same day to lead the group.
"I'm very satisfied with the result," said coach Hope Powell at a post-match press conference. "All my players have well performed."
England will take the winners of Group B in Saturday's quarter-finals, most possibly against the United States or DPR Korea which jointly lead the standings before Tuesday's last round matches.
"It'll be a tough game for us whether we play the U.S. or the DPR Koreans," said Powell.
"Our goal is to reach the quarters. We've done with it now," she added.
The best-expected European Dark Horses, which held Germany with a heroic 0-0 draw last Friday, dominated the Argentina game from the very beginning with a possession of 61% and 26 shots against the rivals' 8.
England earned their first score on an unforced error from the Argentina skipper, as Eva Gonzalez committed an 9th-minute own goal when trying to clear Casey Stoney's long pass, which flew the ball into the penalty box but found no one nearby.
Just a minute later, Jill Scott drove in a long goal from 33 meters away to beat Argentina goalie Romina Ferro to no answer.
The third goal for England came through a second-half penalty after Kelly Smith was tackled down by Catalina Perez, who was shown her second card in the match to get herself expelled, and Fara Williams netted it with five minutes after the break.
Smith herself tapped in the fourth on 64 minutes after receiving the short-range cross from Yankey near the goalmouth line, and later added the fifth on 77 minutes after tapping in a lose ball after Yankey's long shoot was pounced out by Ferro.
It's not yet the end, however, as substitute Midfielder Vicky Exley kicked a second penalty of England to find the far corner of Argentina's net in the dying minute to seal it 6-1.
Argentine skipper Gonzalez made up for her earlier mistake in the one-hour mark as she shot in a direct free kick on a 25-meter spot away from the goalmouth.
That's the very first goal in the tournament for Argentina, which only made their second appearance in FIFA Women's World Cup and broke their own record made four years ago after conceding 16 goals here in China in the group stage of a FIFA Women's World Cup.
Argentina coach Jose Carlos Borrello seemed upset about the defeat, which sent them again to exit with three loses in as many matches.
"Comparing to the level of European women's soccer, we've been far behind in development," he said. "The geographic position of Argentina has decided that our team has less opportunities than the Europeans to play international competitions with other high-level teams."
"As you can see in the match against England, physically and technically, there's big difference between England and us. Our goal is to develop women's football in the following four to eight years, not only for this tournament. It's a long road to go for us," he added.
The Albiceleste team, having been naive against Germany to lose 11-0 in the tournament opener a week ago, showed nothing they had in their second match against Japan last Friday, when they shut up shop and take the Asian surprising package to the final minute to lose only narrowly 1-0.
In Monday's England game, the Argentine team failed to make once a real challenging attack against England's goalmouth, managing only several weak and long shoot which were all easily handled by Rachel Brown.
England, which need a victory over two-goal margin to advance, could have enlarge the scoring margin before the break, as Enlola Aluko's shooting attempt was only denied by the bar on 16 minutes.
At 20, the Chelsea striker's attacking partner Rachel Yankey was tackled down inside the penalty box, but the Guyanese referee Dianne Ferreira-James opted to overlook it.
Yankey twice launched corner kicks in the 24 minute with Casey Stoney heading up to the first one but having narrowly missed it, while the second was easily cleared by the defending pouch of the South Americans.
A third consecutive attacking attempt was driven by England at 26, but skipper Faye White just dived to head it wide.
Stoney's free kick on 34 mintues tried to find two Englishwomen around the right post but neither of them got a touch of the ball.
Source: Xinhua
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