Women’s World Cup results: France benefit from Nigeria’s VAR penalty farce as Norway beat South Korea
Wendie Renard looked to have spurned the chance to put the tournament hosts ahead from the spot, only for a retake to be ordered when Nigeria goalkeeper Viviane Asseyi was judged to have moved off her line too quickly
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Your support makes all the difference.Match-winner Wendie Renard believes France can continue to build momentum in their quest for World Cup glory after securing top spot with a narrow win over Nigeria.
Renard's retaken penalty was enough to seal a 1-0 victory, with the hosts progressing into the last 16 as winners of Group A.
The video assistant referee played a huge part in the outcome as the game in Rennes remained goalless until the final 15 minutes, with Renard scoring a penalty at the second attempt.
Referee Melissa Borjas awarded a spot-kick after consulting VAR and adjudging that Viviane Asseyi had been taken down by Ngozi Ebere - who was shown a second yellow card for the challenge.
Renard stepped up and smashed the penalty against the post, only for VAR to once again fall in favour of France.
Nigeria goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie stepped off her line before Renard struck the ball and Borjas ordered a retake, with the Lyon defender making no mistake second time around.
"When it came to it, the players were asking me whether I wanted to take another go at it, and I decided I was going to take the penalty again," she said after the win.
"It was very good for the team, and also for me as well. I'm very positive. Three games, three wins.
"So if we were to take stock of this first stage, I think we can continue with this momentum, we can ride a wave. We have this great crowd behind us for every game and we want it to continue."
Nigeria could still qualify for the knockout stages as one of the four best third-placed sides having lost to Norway but beaten South Korea earlier in the tournament.
Norway coach Martin Sjogren was delighted to progress to the knockout stages despite Monday night's final Group A match against South Korea not going exactly to plan.
Norway advanced to the last 16 after scoring a penalty in each half through Caroline Graham Hansen and Isabell Herlovsen as they held off a dominant South Korea side for a 2-1 victory at Stade Auguste-Delaune in Reims.
Yeo Min-ji pulled one back for the South Koreans but Norway held on to go through as runners-up behind hosts France. In his post-match interview, Norway coach Sjogren said: "I'm very satisfied that we'll continue (in the competition) and we've played a good match.
"We had a very tough group and the match for us today was very hard for us.
"Both halves started quite well, but the other side are very good at passing and I think that it was quite hard for the players - but we did win after all, even though it didn't go exactly according to plan.
"We're looking forward to having another match."
Next up, Norway face the runners-up of Group C - Brazil or Australia - in the round-of-16 on Saturday.
Norway got on the scoresheet with the earliest goal of this year's finals so far as new Barcelona signing Hansen picked out the bottom-left corner with a fifth-minute spot-kick after Cho So-hyun brought down Maria Thorisdottir.
Hansen was awarded a second penalty of the match six minutes after the break after she was fouled by Kang Chae-rim and moments later succumbed to her injuries following the collision.
She is trying to remain positive over the problem with one eye on Saturday's game after being named player of the match.
She said: "I don't know much yet, I couldn't continue in the match but the doctors are positive.
"They think it will go OK so I'll wait for the answer and I'm positive until then."
South Korea failed to record a point in the group stage and go home from France empty-handed.
Coach Yoon Deok-yeo said: "While we were preparing for the World Cup we've prepared very well. And the fact that we were able to play in front of such a big crowd was a very meaningful experience but it would have been a burden on our players.
"In the third match we know the result wasn't as good as we wanted but our players have done very well. These kind of improvements should be made continuously."
PA
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