Dutch back up the bombast by beating England in World Cup quarter-final

England can console themselves with one thing: it will take an extraordinary performance for anyone to deny the Netherlands an eighth World Cup win between now and Sunday night. There is no shame in losing this comprehensively to such a fine side and, make no mistake, goals in each half from Lidewij Welten and Laurien Leurink could easily have been only a fraction of the story. But a tinge of regret may follow England’s exit from a home tournament that had promised so much and been supported so eagerly; England rarely hit anything like their best form over the past 12 days and that is what cost them the chance to extend their interest into Saturday’s semi-finals.

“We didn’t mess up today, we messed up in the group stage,” said Maddie Hinch, England’s outstanding goalkeeper. Hinch kept the scoreline respectable but her meaning was clear: had England kept their side of the bargain in a kind-looking Pool B, rather than finishing second, then the world’s top-ranked sides would have had no chance of meeting until the final. Instead the Netherlands were granted an early opportunity to avenge penalty shoot-out defeats in the 2015 EuroHockey and 2016 Olympic finals, the latter to Great Britain, and nothing other than cold retribution looked likely here.

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