France 4-0 Morocco

Formidable France Put Four Past Morocco to Advance to the Quarter-Finals

France have cruised into the quarter-finals with a dominant 4-0 victory over Morocco at the Hindmarsh Stadium in Adelaide this afternoon.

An eight-minute scoring burst by Les Bleues with goals from Kadidiatou Diani, Kenza Dali and Eugenie Le Sommer effectively ended the tie before the twenty-third minute, while Le Sommer added insult to injury with a simple header in the second half.

Herve Renard’s team were acutely aware of the potential banana skin that Morocco could be, especially considering the cultural links between the two countries and how eager to impress Morocco would be as a result, but France dominated the opening stages.

The game's first goal would come in the form of a beautiful team goal, finished off by Kadidiatou Diani.

Elise De Almeida fed the ball into Sakina Karchaoui, sending the left back forward. Her one-two with Salma Bacha created the space needed to cross for Diani, who was unmarked in the six-yard box and headed home to open the scoring.

The French would be two goals up just four minutes later, with Diani turning provider for Kenza Dali.

The French number eleven spun in behind the defence from a flicked pass by Dali before returning the ball back to the Aston Villa player. Dali’s shot from outside the box struck the post on its way past Khadija Er-Rmichi in the Moroccan goal, leaving the Moroccan goalkeeper rooted to the spot.

The third goal of the game came in the twenty-third minute, and it would be France’s greatest-ever goal scorer that would get in on the action.

Again Diani was involved, chasing down a lost cause as Nesryne El Chad sought to shepherd the ball out of play. Diani applied enough pressure on the Moroccan centre half, causing her clearance to fall to Eugenie Le Sommer and the unmarked veteran striker unerringly found the bottom corner from eight yards out. 

Morocco came out for the second half all guns blazing and looked dangerous in the opening ten minutes, but their quality in the final third of the pitch was lacking some cutting edge and failed to create a meaningful attempt on Pauline Peyraud-Magnin’s goal.

France were comfortable for the majority of the second half and made it 4-0 in the seventieth minute, courtesy of a Le Sommer header.

Substitute Vicky Becho beat the offside line and crossed from the right onto the head of Le Sommer, who made no mistake from point-blank range to double her tally on the night and increase her record to ninety-two goals in the blue of France. 

The second half meandered to its inevitable conclusion as Les Bleues marched on to the next round of the knockout stages, with the fifth-ranked side in the world ready to exercise their quarter-final demons against tournament hosts Australia.

France’s quarter-final encounter with Australia will take place at the Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane on Saturday, August 12th (kick-off at 8:00 am GMT.)

China 1-6 England

Lionesses Maul China To Top Group D

Pre-tournament favourites England topped Group D after blowing China away 6-1 courtesy of a brace of wonder goals by Lauren James.

Further goals from Alessia Russo, Lauren Hemp, Chloe Kelly and Rachel Daly sealed a third consecutive win for the Lionesses but this one was by far the most convincing.

England needed a point to ensure top spot but got off to a blistering start to mount pressure on a vulnerable looking China defence.

Alessia Russo scored her first goal of the tournament as England took the lead inside four minutes. 

Milly Bright’s interception sparked the counterattack and after Lauren Hemp put a great ball into the box, James fed the Arsenal striker who guided the ball calmly into the net.

Bright made another fantastic intervention and launched another surge forward as James fed Hemp, who slid the ball into the net past a helpless Zhu Yu and made it 2-0.

Moments before half time it was three as a free kick on the right by Alex Greenwood was cut back inside deep to the unmarked James and the Chelsea attacker curled the ball into the bottom left corner.

It was an incredible period for James as she then scored her second goal with a carbon copy of the first as she picked up the ball from a corner and with one thing in her mind, curled the ball into the top right corner. 

However, the goal was cruelly ruled out as Lucy Bronze was deemed to be offside in the build up by the VAR.

China needed a response and made an ideal start to the second half.

England goalkeeper Mary Earps did well to get down to her left and push Wu Chengshu's shot wide.

But from the resulting corner, pinball in the box occurred and after a VAR intervention Bronze was deemed to have handled in the area, a penalty was given.

England conceded for the first time in the tournament as Wang Shuang sent Earps the wrong way with a cooly taken spot kick.

However, Jess Carter picked out James at the back post and England’s star volleyed the ball into the net with a composed finish.

Substitute Kelly made it five as a defensive mix up for China meant she pounced on an empty net.

And there was still time for a sixth as Daly rifled home.

South Korea 0-1 Morocco

Morocco defeat South Korea to secure historic first victory

Morocco secured a 1-0 win over South Korea to give themselves a lifeline in Group H of the Women’s World Cup in Adelaide with a 6th minute header from Ibtissam Jraidi the difference between the sides as South Korea were unable to make their dominance pay off.

The African debutants had the dream start on six minutes when Ibtissam Jraidi reacted quickest and got across the Korean defender glancing the centre from Hanane Ait El Haj across the face of goal with the ball nestling in the far corner of the net to lift the mood of the African’s supporters.

South Korea continued to enjoy the lion’s share of possession through the game but it would be Morocco who would come closest to scoring again, a long ball towards the goal scorer was cut out with a defensive header from Hong Hye-ji and the Korean was relieved to see her effort drop just over the cross bar onto the top of the net.

Just before the half hour mark Korea had two glorious chances to equalise, a snatched effort was going well wide but ended up at the feet of Son Hwa-yeon who wasn’t able to redirect the ball on the frame.

Moments later another cross from the left fell perfectly between two Moroccan defenders on the head of Park Eun-sun but the experienced forward was unable to find the leveller, her diving header going marginally wide of the left hand post of Khadija Er-Rmichi.

Morocco did force another opportunity to score as Sakina Ouzraoui Diki stole possession deep in the Korean half, her resulting run at the defence gave her the opportunity to shoot but her effort isn’t one for the highlight reel as it didn’t bother the goalkeeper to leave the minimum between the sides at the break.

South Korea dominated the second half but they struggled to create any meaningful chances. Late substitute Kasey Phair had the best opportunity but her effort was pulled to the right of the goal and didn’t bother the Moroccan keeper.

At the other end another teenager would have the best opportunity to seal it for Morocco as Rosella Ayane found herself one on one with the Korean keeper, she snatched at her effort and it went harmlessly wide of the goal.

The Moroccan’s didn’t care though as the match referee blew the final whistle and send the North African side delirious with their first ever win at the tournament and gave them hope of progressing from the group with a show down with Colombia to come later in the week.

China 1-0 Haiti

Ten Women of China Keep Knockout Hopes Alive

China went level on points with Denmark in Group D to keep their hopes of progressing into the last 16 alive courtesy of Wang Shanshan’s penalty in a 1-0 win. 

Shui Qingxia’s side played most of the contest with 10 players after Zhang Rui’s early red card.

China started the better of the two sides having 73 per cent possession in the opening stanza of the first half but failed to create anything to really threaten Haiti’s goalmouth.

Haiti looked dangerous on the counterattack in their narrow defeat to England last time out but failed to go anywhere near the opposing goal in what was a tame opening.

But Rui was shown a straight red card on the half hour mark after a VAR review showed the midfielder produce a ridiculous challenge on Sherly Jeudy that was nowhere near the ball.

Haiti’s numerical advantage paid off at the end of the first half as they piled the pressure on.

On the stroke of half time, Haiti appeared to have scored the opening goal but Nerilla Mondesir was ruled offside with a late flag by the linesman.

Despite the goal being disallowed it provided a warning to China and shortly after the interval star player Melchie Dumornay came off the bench and had a golden opportunity.

The Lyon bound attacking midfielder found herself one on one with the goalkeeper following a fortunate ricochet but was denied by an excellent point black save by Zhu Yu. 

Dumornay, who was so impressive against England, rued the miss knowing that if her attempt was either side of the goalkeeper she would have scored her country’s first ever World Cup goal.

Zhang Linyan went down in the area after a late challenge from Ruthny Mathurin but the flag went up for offside.

However, a VAR check overturned the offside and gave the penalty that Shanshan cooly converted.

China looked to have won another penalty when Linyan appeared to have been fouled in the box but the referee and VAR decided to play on. 

Moments later, Linyan was unmarked and should have scored but her free header went over the crossbar. 

Haiti appeared to have won a penalty in additional time but Chen Qiaozhu's foul in the box was overturned by VAR.

China take on England in a must win contest if they are to have any hopes of qualifying for the next round, while Haiti face Denmark. 

Brazil 4-0 Panama

Borges Dream Debut Inspires Brazil To Opening Win

Ary Borges scored a hat-trick on her World Cup debut as Brazil cruised past World Cup debutants Panama 4-0 at the Hindmarsh Stadium in Adelaide to take control of Group F of the Women’s World Cup.

Brazil sit at the top of Group F with three points while Jamaica and France behind them on one point each.

The early stages were littered with incomplete yet impressive Brazilian attacks, with their final pass or shot inches away from their intended target.

Brazil did take the lead in the nineteenth minute through Ary Borges, who headed into the ground from a pinpoint cross from Debinha to score on her World Cup debut.

Borges grabbed a second twenty minutes later in a similar fashion. This time Tamires made a clever overlapping run and crosses to find Borges, and although Yenith Bailey saved from her initial header, Borges made no mistake with her follow-up effort.

Bailey was keeping Panama in the game with saves from Beatriz Zaneratto and Luana, with Panama finding it incredibly difficult to sustain any meaningful spells of possession.

Early in the second half, Brazil scored potentially the goal of the tournament through Beatriz Zaneratto.

Debinha and Adriana linked up nicely on the left wing before Debinha crossed for Ary Borges. Instead of going for her hat-trick, Borges backheeled the ball to Beatriz and the Brazilian attacker finished calmly to make it 3-0. A beautiful team goal from Pia Sundhage’s side.

The good karma from passing the ball while on a hat-trick was rewarded in the seventieth minute for Ary Borges, when substitute Geyse whipped a ball in from the left and Borges, yet again, found space in the box to head home.

Marta came off the bench and had the chance to score in her sixth World Cup tournament, but her tame effort from a close-range free-kick was saved easily by Bailey.

Panama threatened late in the game to improve the scoreline from their perspective but Riley Tanner’s deflected shot was saved well by Leticia in the Brazil goal. A statement of intent from Brazil in their opening game with the women in yellow and blue as they looked dangerous from start to finish.