Australia 1-0 Ireland; Catley’s Penalty Earns Australia First Victory of FIFA Women’s World Cup
As per the tradition, the co-hosts of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, Australia opened the tournament with a stunning victory over Ireland.
Australia beat Ireland 1-0 in FIFA Women’s World Cup opening match
The hosting nation did not have a very easy task at hand as they were seen to be visibly struggling to get past the iron defense put up by the Irish. Australians were already facing a last minute set back after their captain Sam Kerr was declared to be ruled out owing to a calf injury.
However, it was an early goal through a penalty into the net right into the second half of the game in the 52nd minute of the match by Stephanie Catley ensured a safe victory for the host nation in Sydney.
Despite winning and keeping a clean sheet, along with accumulating three points in the opening match, the fans who flocked to the stadium were left perplexed about the performance demonstrated by the Matildas.
There might be two reasons for this, first being the last minute injury of their captain cool, Kerr and the second being the overall underwhelming performance considering this was at the global stage of FIFA World Cup and a victory coming only due to an accidental penalty.
The Matildas are off with a shaky start into the month-long football celebration with the match seeing a record-breaking 75,784 fans flocking with uncertainty of the match into the stadium.
The scything attacking strategies of the Aussies which looked like one of their deadliest weapons against France earlier in a pre-tournament warm-up match seemed to be very neutralized by the Irish team as they rooted their stature to absorb all the pressure that the Matildas put in them.
Australia’s Sam Kerr ruled out of first two FIFA matches
Despite having well-coordinated counter attacks at the top of their abilities, the three central defenders, two wing-back and the two defensive midfielders from European side seemed to absorb all the forward movement of the Matildas and gave them a hard time in finding any opening.
The visitors also had a bit of physical imposition on the hosts considering that their midfielder Denise O’Sullivan got herself a yellow card late into the match owing to her over-enthusiastic play style.
Despite failing to create any real opportunities of scoring the Matildas gave their everything to defend their goal to desperately ensure the three points, and even without dominating the match as they probably had expected, won it in the end against the stubborn Ireland.
