Britain’s women beat New Zealand to secure final place

Richardson-Walsh, from West Bridgford, and Newark’s Shona McCallin helped Great Britain end a 36-year wait to reach the gold medal match of an Olympic Games when they defeated New Zealand 3-0 on Wednesday.

Following successful efforts from Germany’s Janne Müller-Wieland and Willemijn Bos of the Netherlands, the match was settled when Marie Mävers was denied by Dutch shot-stopper Joyce Sombroek before Ellen Hoog scored to put the Oranje on the verge of a historic third successive Olympic gold medal.

Cullen had stitches in her forehead, while Twigg took a bang to the jaw, but all British players displayed no obvious lasting injury issues immediately after the match.

Although the reigning Olympic and World champions will go into the final as favourites, they face a Great Britain team that is in the form of their lives.

A commanding defensive display was central to GB’s semi-final win, as centre-backs Kate Richardson-Walsh and Laura Unsworth, ably supported by full-backs Cullen and Sam Quek and substitutes Hollie Webb and Giselle Ansley, prevented New Zealand from creating many clear-cut chances.

There was no chance of Britain taking their foot off the gas and they took the lead when Owsley’s cross from the baseline was diverted into her own net by Miyuki Nakagawa. They realise it will be a tight game and they know we have pace. “I think there will be something in the Dutch minds about the Euro final comeback”.

Helen Richardson-Walsh was then brought down by Kayla Whitelock – Whitelock received a yellow card – and she stroked the ball home to double Britain’s advantage.

It all came down to processes. In 26 encounters between the two sides the Netherlands have won 19 and lost only one, a 1989 Champions Trophy game they edged 3-2.

But celebrations will be kept to a minimum.

“For us, it’s like a Thursday of a last training week and we’re just going at it like that”.

External influences and voices are completely blocked out, to the extent the team have a self-imposed social media ban. That’s won us games here – concentrating for the entire 60 minutes and knowing what our roles are. We won’t change anything about how we prepare.

“Otherwise, if you look at this and go “we’re all the way in Brazil and look how many GB fans are there and we’ve got a silver medal for the first time in history”. I have a good feeling”.

They won all five of their pool matches, the only nation to do so, and the two knockout wins take their ideal record to seven. They will take on the two-time defending gold medalist Netherlands on Friday.

It says something of how far back that triumph dates that it even falls beyond the memory of Kate Richardson-Walsh, the 36-year-old captain of this team and player of 368 global games. “It’s all about momentum for us and we are getting better and better”.