Australia 1 Norway 1

Australia achieved a marvellous in Hangzhou tonight.

Coach Tom Sermanni played it tactically superb, using his players to maximum effect to gain the best ever result for Australia in football.

Lisa De Vanna equalised for Australia late on. And the Matilda's could have pinched.

A great game, roll on Wednesday and well done Matildas!

Report as it happened below so apologies if it's a little incoherent. You had to be there!




Australia could win. Five minutes to go.

CEO Heather Reid goes wild in the stands with her red hat on!

Munoz controls and releases De Vanna. De Vanna twist and turns and scores

Caitlin Munoz is on.

Sermanni is going for it. A very postive move by Sermanni.
But will it bring rewards?

Lisa De Vanna was brought on at ahlf-time as Sermanni went for pace in the second half.

And her skill and pace nearly brought the perfect reward. She weaved her way through and hit a shot against the post.

Australia was that close to getting an equaliser.

Sarah Walsh was also given thirty minutes try and get a result, but the Aussies were tiring and few balls found their way to Walsh and De Vanna as the game drwew to a close.

Salisbury was holding the defence together, but they were coming under increasing pressure from Norway.

The Matildas made six changes to the team which thumped Ghana 4-1 on Wednesday. Coach Tom Sermanni was clearly looking for fresh legs and fresh tactics to counter the World number 4 ranked Norway.

Out went Sarah Walsh, Caitlin Munoz, Jo Peters, Clare Polkinhorn, Sally Shipard, and Kate McShea.

In came Kate Gill, Jo Burgess, Lauren Colthorpe, Alicia Ferguson, Danielle Small, and Thea Slatyer.

But it didn’t work. Not early on anyway, as Norway started at a cracking pace. They exposed space in front of the Aussie back four, played in striker Gulbrandsen and she finished clinically.

Australia was rocking and there looked to be a gulf in class.
But the team steadied and started to play their way into the game.

Heather Garriock was superb. Her driving runs, tremendous skill and willingness to attack drove Australia on.

Collette McCallum played some neat balls and linked well with Garriock and Jo Burgess.

But Norway were finding plenty of space in behind the Australian midfield and causing all sorts of panic in the Aussie defence.

But Australia kept probing and McCallum produced a wonderful ball across the face of goal that Danielle Small couldn’t quite reach.

Jo Burgess found herself one on one with the Norwegian but couldn’t quite finish.
And then came the Norwegian push. Big gaps started to appear just before half-time as the Aussies hung on. Alicia Ferguson and McCallum started to tire. Katie Gill and Burgess were finding it hard to keep the ball, or even to get the ball.

Australia would have been pleased to get to half-time 1-0 down and with potential for fresh and pacy forwards the game was still within their grasp.