English penalty hero Chloe Kelly calls Lionesses ‘special team’ after shoot-out victory over Nigeria books place in quarter-finals World Cup women

Chloe Kelly praised England as a ‘special team’ as she once again proved to be the match winner by scoring the decisive penalty in a World Cup shoot-out victory over Nigeria.

The European champions were second best for much of their last 16 fight, with their chances of victory hampered by a late red card for Lauren James following an unnecessary stamp on Michelle Alozie.

After a goalless 120 minutes, Georgia Stanway fired the first penalty of the shoot-out wide for England, only for both Desire Oparanozie and Alozie to miss the target with their efforts.

With everyone else successful from the spot, it was up to Kelly to punch the winning penalty emphatically, following her winner in extra time in the European Championship final last summer and the decisive penalty in a shoot-out victory over Brazil in the final. Finalissima in April.

“No, definitely not, it’s the team,” she told BBC Sport when asked if she was the competition winner again.

“This team is special, we did it in the European Championship, we did it in the Finalissima, we’re here again tonight and doing it; we keep moving forward and more is coming from this special team.

“It’s great, whatever is presented to us, we show what we are capable of.

‘We dig deep, we dig deep as a group, we believe in our abilities; we believe first and foremost in what we are commanded to do.’

Asked what was going through her mind as she walked over to take her penalty, the Manchester City striker replied: “For me it’s ‘I’m going to score’ – that’s how I look at it, if I win that mental battle we are good.

“We actually practiced a lot (penalties) and it works.”