All week, the question for the Matildas had been where the goals would come from, in the absence of injured captain Sam Kerr and, more recently, concussed striker Mary Fowler. On Thursday night, it turned out that was the wrong question. Nigeria put three past a shell-shocked Australia to silence the home crowd and leave the Matildas’ Women’s World Cup dreams hanging by a thread. Without Kerr and Fowler, the Australians found two goals – only they had not counted on conceding three.
How a game, and possibly a whole World Cup campaign, can change in a heartbeat. Following a dominant but goalless first 45 minutes, the Matildas opened the scoring in the first minute of injury time. When the moment came, the Matildas streamed towards their bench. After a week of adversity – Kerr’s late withdrawal before the team’s opening match, concussions to Fowler and Aivi Luik, questions about whether the Matildas could withstand this pressure – the players knew instinctively where they wanted to be.
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