Stokes and England happy to move on from Cameroon clash

Demi Stokes feels Thursdays Womens World Cup quarter-final with Norway coming as soon as it does helps England refocus after their crazy match against Cameroon. The Lionesses face the Norwegians in Le Havre for a place in the semi-finals, four days on from beating Cameroon 3-0 in an ill-tempered last-16 contest in Valenciennes. Cameroon twice looked as if they may not continue playing as they complained about VAR decisions during a game that also saw Nikita Parris take an elbow to the face, Steph Houghton hurt by a poor challenge and Toni Duggan spat on.Toni Duggan, second left, shows match referee Qin Liang after being spat on by Cameroons Augustine Ejangue, left (John Walton/PA)Asked if it was difficult to fully focus on Norway after a match like that, England left-back Stokes said: I think its probably easier, because youve just got to move on. Its a big game coming up and its just reset yourself and lets go again. So I think thats what we are focusing on quick recovery, doing all the right things and looking forward to the game.Norway are a very good team and well show them respect, give them the respect they deserve. Sundays match left England boss Phil Neville saying Cameroons behaviour was wrong, because it is the image of womens football thats going out worldwide. Phil Neville was critical of Cameroons conduct (Richard Sellers/PA)Stokes thinks England relayed a positive message from it because of the way we acted.The 27-year-old Manchester City player said: It was a crazy game, obviously we all know that. But were just so happy and proud of how we as a team acted and how we conducted ourselves. I think that was the most important thing that came out of that.Stokes, who was an unused substitute at the Stade du Hainaut having made her World Cup debut in the previous match against Japan, added: As well, that game, it was more than that. People made their (World Cup) debuts and that should have been talked about, people scoring (Houghton, Ellen White with her fourth goal of the tournament and Alex Greenwood), that should have been talked about.Living the absolute dream. World Cup debut, through to the Quarters and my family in the crowd most importantly, being a part of this team pic.twitter.com/EOoJFHpXhb Lucy Staniforth (@lucystan37) June 23, 2019I was just very happy for Lucy Staniforth, making her debut, and Leah (Williamson). I was just very happy for them and tried to focus more on that than the actual game and we won as well, we got the job done. It was more about that.A FIFA spokesperson on Monday said the governing body was looking into Sundays events and would update in due course.When asked if she thought Cameroon should be punished, Stokes said: I cant tell anybody how to feel. How they feel is how they feel.I know obviously FIFA will look into that and they will take care of that.Demi Stokes, centre, trains with her England team-mates (John Walton/PA)Isha Johansen, the president of the Confederation of African Footballs organising committee for womens football, was quoted by BBC Sport on Monday as saying it was an embarrassing situation. Johansen, also president of the Sierra Leone Football Association, told BBC Sport: Clearly when something happens like what happened, the disappointment that we saw on the pitch, we as Africans felt for Cameroon as a family, as one.We take the collective blame, but at the same time, without sounding like we are condoning what happened, I think its all about now actually understanding why it happened.These are the issues that I think CAF has got to address and will address, clearly so we can avoid the same mistakes happening.(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
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