Stefanie Van Der Gragt (Front) of the Netherlands celebrates scoring with her teammates during the quarterfinal between Italy and the Netherlands at the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup in Valenciennes, France, June 29, 2019. (Xinhua/Cheng Tingting)
VALENCIENNES, France, June 29 (Xinhua) -- The Netherlands took on a pair of second-half headers to eliminate Italy 2-0 for their first-ever semifinal appearance at the FIFA Women's World Cup here on Saturday.
Vivianne Miedema headed the Oranjeleeuwinnen in front through a free kick. Moments later, Sherida Spitse assisted another header of Stefanie Van Der Gragt with a free kick.
"I didn't expect to be in the semifinals of this World Cup. We've been complaining that we're not playing the best football but in the end we're in the semis. We've done amazing and we can be really proud. We need to focus on the next game," said Player of the Match Miedema.
The Dutch side had no changes to line-up which started against Japan in the last round, while Aurora Galli replaced Cristiana Girelli for Italy.
Staying on track for respective maiden semifinal appearance at the quadrennial competition, both teams managed few concrete scoring chances in sun-baked Valenciennes, with Italy's best opportunity arriving in the 36th minute, but it was squandered by forward Valentina Giacinti who fired a shot wide.
The Netherlands were awarded a free kick outside the box six minutes later, but Spitse saw her low shot saved by goalkeeper Laura Giuliani.
They stepped up their offensive quality after the restart, with Danielle van de Donk rattling the crossbar in the 58th minute and Dominique Bloodworth heading wide the bounced ball. Spitse had a free-kick wide off the post four minutes later.
Miedema, the Dutch team's all-time leading scorer, snatched a deadlock breaker by pushing forward to nod Spitse's free kick home in the 70th minute.
The Oranjeleeuwinnen replicated their scoring way 10 minutes later. After another Spitse's free kick was sent in, Van Der Gragt rose highest to head it into the net.
The Dutch side held on to the advantage until the final whistle for their historic World Cup semifinal.
"I'm not really surprised with how far we've come, but I'm very proud of the team. We have very good players. Since the European Championships, we've gained a lot of confidence. We also needed to improve our game to perform on the level that we're at at this World Cup," the Netherlands' coach Sarina Wiegman told a news conference.
"We have had some moments where we were lucky but there's such a great team spirit and there's such a great belief that we can perform well. The word proud is more suitable than surprised," she added.
After the match, Italian players were quite emotional with tears in eyes for not refreshing their record at the World Cup.
"When you really commit a great deal to what you do than naturally you are emotional and upset. The girls are all in tears because they had this dream and the dream is over. But this is a starting point and we need to push on from this with a lot more confidence," Italy's coach Milena Bertolini pointed out.
The Netherlands will face either Germany or Sweden in Wednesday's semifinal in Lyon.
