Matilda’s miraculous win, Catley Brace and Cooney-Cross assist
Some of our Arsenal Women’s players are currently away at the Olympics to compete for their countries, and what has already been an eventful start to the tournament, went to new levels last night in a thrilling game that three of our Aussie Arsenal women’s players featured. It was an incredible come back from the Matilda’s, while new signing Caldentey started and impressed for Spain in their 1-0 win over Nigeria, here’s a quick run down of everything that happened overnight.
The Matildas and our trio of Aussie’s; Steph Catley, Caitlin Foord and Kyra Cooney-Cross had a rough start to their Olympic campaign as they walked away defeated to Germany 3-0 in their opening game and needed a win against Zambia yesterday to boost moral and ignite the belief back into the squad, and they did just that with an incredible come back that saw all three of our Arsenal Women make a huge impact on the game.
The game started off very shaky for the Matilda’s with Zambia scoring a goal in the first 40 seconds, lobbing the keeper and putting the Aussie’s behind. Luckily not long after our very own Steph Catley picked up an assist by whipping a ball in from a free kick into a dangerous area in the box and Alannah Kennedy jumped up and headed the ball into the back of the net to even up the scores.
Zambia came fighting back and managed to score two goals in quick succession, leaving the Matilda’s looking lost and down by two goals. The Matilda’s again fought back and Kyra Cooney-Cross managed to find the head of Hayley Raso from the corner who put the Aussie’s back in the game at 3-2.
Zambia again managed to score another goal just before half time and gave the Aussie’s a lot to think about in the dressing room. Things seemed to be going from bad to worse in the second half when Zambia scored another goal, leaving the scores a 5-2 and looking like an impossible task for the Matilda’s.
Shortly after that the ball was in the back of the net for Arsenal’s Caitlin Foord but was soon cancelled out by VAR after a challenge just before the goal, but Thankfully Catley managed to find the back of the net only 3 minutes with a beautiful strike and brought the Aussies back into the game again. The Arsenal Woman then stepping up to the spot 10 minutes after to level up the scores, sending the keeper the wrong way.
Catley again assisting the winning goal in the 90th minute to win the game for the Aussie’s and kickstart their Olympics campaign properly. An incredible showing for our Aussie girls as they look to advance through a very difficult group, with Catley picking up a brace and 2 assists and Cooney-Cross getting in on the action too.
Australia will next take on The USA and Arsenal Women’s Emily Fox as they try to progress to the next stage of the Olympics.
What’s your thoughts Gooners?
Daisy Mae