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Lewis Ambrose·25 July 2023
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Lewis Ambrose·25 July 2023
With the World Cup taking place in Australia and New Zealand, plenty of fans around the world will be in bed when some of the games take place.
Not to worry, we have you covered.
The final teams to make their bow this summer, Colombia convincingly beat South Korea.
A stunning result saw the Philippines shock the co-hosts to net their first ever World Cup goal and seal their first ever World Cup win.
Norway’s struggles continues as they lost Ada Hegerberg pre-game and played out a goalless draw against Switzerland.
That Sarina Bolden goal — the first for any Philippines team at any World Cup, including any age group across men’s and women’s — led to an enormous celebration in Wellington on and off the pitch.
The players went wild, understandably, Bolden’s face told one hell of a story, and the strong Philippines-supporting contingent inside the stadium made enough noise for you to think they were the co-hosts, not their opponents.
That was going to be moment of the game until added time, when New Zealand’s Grace Jale found herself free just yards out and aimed a side-footed volley towards the far corner, only for Philippines goalkeeper Olivia McDaniel to pull off a save that surely won’t be topped all summer.
A huge, huge moment. A huge win. A slice of history.
As we’ve already shone a light on McDaniel, how about Linda Caicedo?
The teenager is one of the players widely expected to deliver big things this summer and she showed flashes of her incredible potential on her World Cup debut.
The Real Madrid star pulled off a stunning touch before cutting inside to score Colombia’s second — the first goal from outside the area this tournament — even if she was helped by some really poor goalkeeping.
Not everything Caicedo tried came off but the 18-year-old was adventurous, she was creative, and she didn’t appear remotely bothered by the size of the stage she was on and the expectations that are on her.
Let’s leave Australia and New Zealand for a second to see what it meant to the Philippines fans watching in a mall in Quezon City.
Group A is now perfectly poised, with the Philippines win and Norway’s 0-0 draw with Switzerland leaving everything wide open.
Things don’t look great for the Norwegians with Ada Hegerberg limping off injured in the warm-up and they go into their final game having to win to reach the knockout stages.