Fomina steals the show in Cyprus

There were goals aplenty on the second matchday of the Cyprus Women's Cup on Saturday with England and France putting on a four-goal thriller, an Elena Fomina-inspired Russia powering past New Zealand, South Africa stunning Scotland and a narrow win for Canada over the Netherlands.

Qualification scenario
Three teams can still take the one available final berth in Group A, with England ahead of France on goal difference, both with four points, and South Africa just behind on three. England face Scotland and France take on South Africa on Tuesday. A similar situation is unfolding in Group B, with three teams still in the running for Thursday's final. Canada lead with four points, followed by Russia and the Netherlands on three, with Canada-Russia and the Netherlands-New Zealand scheduled for Tuesday.

Group A
England 2-2 France
UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™ finalists England and France shared a pulsating 2-2 draw to both move on to four points. France opened the scoring after quarter of an hour, Corine Franco firing home after Elise Bussaglia's effort had come back off the post. England levelled eleven minutes later via Casey Stoney after good work from Kelly Smith, but fell behind once more on 72 minutes through Elodie Thomis's breakaway goal. Within three minutes England were level again thanks to Karen Carney, but can consider themselves fortunate not to have conceded a late winner when Franco forced a superb save from England goalkeeper Rachel Brown and substitute Gaëtane Thiney hit the bar in the space of 60 seconds.

South Africa 2-0 Scotland
The Banyana Banyana, playing their first-ever games outside Africa, bounced back from their opening 6-0 defeat by England to record a morale-boosting 2-0 victory over Scotland. It was déjà vu for Scotland, however, who were beaten by the same scoreline in their first match against France and can no longer progress to the title decider.

Group B
Russia 4-2 New Zealand
Despite going a goal down after just two minutes via Ria Percival's strike for New Zealand, EURO finalists Russia came back strongly to equalise 20 minutes later when Fomina finished off an impressive team move. Fomina doubled her side's lead on 29 minutes and Anna Kozhnikova made 3-1 shortly before the interval. The Football Ferns came out sharper after the break and reduced the deficit on the hour mark through Amber Hearn's spot-kick, only for Fomina to dash their hopes when completing her hat-trick with five minutes remaining. "We were playing against strong opponents but could have scored many more," said Russia assistant coach Andrei Mitin.

Canada 2-1 Netherlands
Without striker Manon Melis, who scored both goals in the Netherlands' 2-1 opening Group B win against Russia but has only recently returned from a broken jaw, the Europeans were two down after just 35 minutes against Canada, who had drawn their first game against New Zealand. Sylvia Smit did pull a goal back for the Dutch in the second half, but to no avail. In spite of the reverse, coach Vera Pauw believes the competition should aid her charges' confidence ahead of this summer's EURO. "We can't be satisfied with our first-half display but in the second we managed to keep Canada, a world-class national team, pinned back in their own half," she said.