England beat Uganda to reach Nations Cup final
The Roses will face South Africa on Sunday at the Copper Box Arena after they beat Malawi 58-55 earlier on Saturday.
England were narrowly defeated 61-59 by the Proteas when the two sides met in the round-robin stage of the competition last week.
Jess Thirlby, England's head coach, told Sky Sports her side are "ready" for the final.
She added: "It's a nice circle back to see if the learnings from last week, we can apply tomorrow, and I've got real faith in the group."
England have never won the Nations Cup despite this being their sixth time reaching the final.
The game was level at 42-42 at the start of the final quarter but England scored seven points in a row to go 50-43 up.
Uganda could not match the increased tempo and the Roses sealed victory with nine more goals.
The England-South Africa final is at 15:00 GMT, while Malawi and Uganda will face each other in the third-place play-off at 13:00.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
44 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Will ‘proper England' be enough against Sweden at the Euros?
When England defeated world champions Spain 1-0 at Wembley in February, courtesy of a scrappy Jess Park goal and a resilient defensive display, it was a performance out of keeping with head coach Sarina Wiegman's general philosophy, but more familiar to those who have watched plenty of English football over the years. It wasn't elegant. It wasn't exciting. But England battled and scrapped, and won the game through tenacity as much as technique. Advertisement That's how it felt to the players, too. 'To be honest, we spoke about just being proper English tonight,' said centre-back Millie Bright at the time, who played an important role in defending the box. 'Having that fight, and that desire to defend for each other, to work hard for each other and be hard to beat.' Bright, an aerially dominant defender who switched to being a Plan B striker when England wanted to go direct, was perhaps the most 'proper English' player in the squad that won the previous European Championship three years ago and reached the World Cup final in 2023. She withdrew from contention for this summer's Euros shortly before the start of the tournament, leaving England less 'proper English'. And yet the phrase keeps coming up. 'We've spoken about wanting to be 'proper England',' midfielder Georgia Stanway said at the press conference ahead of facing the Netherlands in the second of their three group-phase games, explaining what the players had spoken about after the 2-1 defeat to France in the opener four days earlier.'We want to go back to what we're good at — we want to go back to a traditional style of football in terms of tough tackles, getting back to our roots.' Centre-forward Alessia Russo's interpretation of the phrase was similar. 'It means we'll work hard until we can't run any more and stick together,' she said. 'We know that we are very dominant on the ball (but) we wanted to return to our roots, and we know we're capable of performances like that.' Advertisement All this suggests that 'proper England' is really about a mentality, and the desire, when out of possession, to make it difficult for opponents. But it's interesting to note England actually recorded the second-lowest tackle completion rate in the group stage among this tournament's 16 teams, ahead of only Belgium. Three matches is a very small sample size, against opponents of varying quality, and tackle success rate doesn't correlate particularly well with winning games. But this doesn't particularly appear to be England's strong suit at Euro 2025 so far. Traditionally, 'proper England' would also be considered to be about direct football — getting the ball forward as quickly as possible. 'The players use that a lot now,' Wiegman said about the phrase after that 4-0 win over her home country, the Netherlands. '(It means) togetherness, and the fight. But at the same time, when you're in possession, for me it's important that the passes we play are with purpose, and today you really saw the purpose in every pass we played, and for me that's also 'proper English'.' In that game a week ago, England twice scored after excellent long passes from goalkeeper Hannah Hampton. It would be somewhat misleading to consider them 'long balls', though — the first, in particular, was more of an exquisite through ball for Russo rather than a long ball. But that ability to go from back to front in a direct but defined manner might be the defining quality of this England side, especially given Russo's quality with her back to goal. Her ability to receive long balls, and the accuracy of switches out to Lauren Hemp on the left, means England are an outlier in this competition — they play long passes often, but they're very accurate with them. Advertisement Sweden, who they face in the quarter-finals on Thursday, should be a very different test, however. 'We've got a lot of experience against them,' Stanway said. 'They're tough, they're physical, they're more direct. I'm not sure we've faced that so far in our group, but we do have a lot of experience against them.' That includes a 4-0 win over Peter Gerhardsson's side at Euro 2022, but also two draws — 1-1 in Wembley and 0-0 in Gothenburg — in qualification for this tournament. Tough, physical and direct sounds quite 'proper England'. And the problem is that Sweden might be able to beat them at their own game. Indeed, the roots of Swedish football philosophy extend back to the English influence. On a literal level, the game arrived in Sweden in the late 19th century thanks to English sailors whose ships docked in Gothenburg. Tactically, the Swedes' love of 4-4-2 and zonal defending is generally attributed to the influence of two English managers, Bob Houghton and Roy Hodgson, in the 1970s. This Sweden side also offers plenty of Women's Super League experience — eight of their probable XI tomorrow night have played their club football in England at some point in their career. They also offer height, physicality and a direct manner of attacking — with long balls in behind for Stina Blackstenius, boundless midfield running from Filippa Angeldahl, or determined dribbling from Johanna Rytting Kaneryd. They've attempted the most dribbles (82) and crosses (89) among the 16 sides. Notably, they also cause serious problems from set pieces, particularly the inswinging corners that defined their play in the 2023 World Cup, where they knocked out defending champions the United States in the last 16, and they have as much togetherness as any squad at this tournament. Advertisement 'Proper England' might be the order of the day at some point again in Euro 2025, particularly if Wiegman and company reach the final and face their 2023 World Cup final conquerors Spain, who they cannot compete with in terms of possession play. But 'proper England' alone won't be enough to win this quarter-final. Sweden will be more fearful of Lauren James' creativity, Lauren Hemp's trickery and Keira Walsh's diagonal passes. 'The English are known for having a certain type of mentality, a fight about us,' said England captain Leah Williamson on Tuesday. 'Historically, we've maybe been quite a defensive team. I remember one of the first things (Wiegman) said was 'Just slow down'. She wanted us to focus on the football.' 'Proper England' might be a useful phrase in terms of mentality and team bonding. But under Wiegman, England have shown they're capable of so much more. This article originally appeared in The Athletic. England, Women's Soccer, Women's Euros 2025 The Athletic Media Company


News24
44 minutes ago
- News24
France star Dupont to miss November Test against Springboks
France captain Antoine Dupont said in an interview published on Tuesday he aims to return to playing after his country's November Tests. The 28-year-old scrumhalf suffered a serious knee injury on 8 March and will be sidelined for games against Rugby World Cup winners South Africa, Fiji and Australia. 'We'll be eight months on from my injury,' the Toulouse halfback told French newspaper L'Equipe. 'I think it's a reasonable amount of time. I hope everything will go well between now and then. 'I'm not sure it would be very intelligent to rush, even if it's hard to miss international games.'

Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Will Magnay with the big dunk
Why Joao Pedro Could Be VITAL To Chelsea Chelsea's summer spending continues with the addition of Joao Pedro for around £60m. But with Liam Delap already a marquee signing, and Cole Palmer undroppable behind him, it's a move that doesn't seem to make any sense on paper. Adam Clery looks at the player's abilities and mindset to show why he unlocks countless tactical possibilities for Enzo Maresca. 16:44 Now Playing Paused Ad Playing