Gone were the ghosts of France 2019. The nightmare in Nice of four years ago – when the Matildas departed the last World Cup after a penalty shootout – a distant memory. This time around, Australia’s performance may have summoned demons for the French themselves, with the host nation keeping their World Cup dream alive for another game after a dramatic 20-penalty shootout.
You would have been forgiven for thinking this was a summer World Cup in balmy Brisbane, and even when the sun went down the heat did not dissipate for a second as Australia and France fought for a spot in the semi-finals over more than three hours. The game teetered back and forth. Regulation time ended goalless, as did 30 minutes of extra-time, and an epic penalty shootout was required to separate these two sides.
In her first World Cup, substitute Cortnee Vine stepped up as Australia’s 10th penalty-taker to become the Matildas’ hero as she sent them through to the semi-finals for the first time in the team’s history – and as the first host nation to make the last four since 2003. In Sydney on Wednesday they will face England, 2-1 victors against Colombia.
With the crowd on their feet, Matildas goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold raised the roof at Brisbane Stadium by saving the first penalty of the shootout from Selma Bacha. Caitlin Foord scored hers, and Australia were tangibly in front for the first time. But it was short-lived, with the next from Steph Catley saved. The drama of the shootout was just beginning.
Arnold saved a second, smacked her own spot-kick into the upright, then saved a third – twice, as the first had to be retaken after she left her line too early. Knowing a goal would win the game, another World Cup debutant, Clare Hunt, who was probably not expecting to be called on to take a penalty, had her shot saved. But after France’s Vicki Becho hit the post, Vine sealed the deal with a nerveless effort.
The heart-stopping, historic victory came after a hard-fought 120 minutes of football. France quickly showcased their sharp attacking prowess and the hits came fast down the left flank. The pace with which France stormed out of the blocks sent a nervous hush around the stadium and there were signs of nervousness on the pitch too.
France forward Kadidiatou Diani nearly took advantage of early nerves in just the seventh minute when she pounced on a botched clearance from Alanna Kennedy but sent her shot across the face of goal. The defence looked rattled and it was an early hand-in-mouth moment that would be repeated for both sides throughout the increasingly tense and chaotic game.
For much of the rest of the first half the green and gold crowd hummed along with occasional outbursts for long balls forward, footage on the big screen of Sam Kerr on the bench, and any touch from Mary Fowler, who donned her black gloves despite the afternoon temperature reaching more than 20C.
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As the light faded, the noise level in the stadium ratcheted up several notches, and so too did the energy on the pitch. And it was Fowler who just before the end of the half was provided the best chances to break the deadlock. After being kept fairly quiet, Hayley Raso thundered down the right and got a low cross past the imperious Wendie Renard towards the near post. Goalkeeper Pauline Peyraud-Magnin came out but Emily van Egmond got there first and tapped it back to Fowler on the edge of the six-yard box.
With Peyraud-Magnin off her line, it seemed a certain goal, only for Élisa De Almeida to make a crucial intervention with her thigh to deflect the ball wide. A few minutes later, it was Fowler again, running on to a beautifully weighted pass from Katrina Gorry. But this time the goalkeeper timed her run better and was able to prevent Fowler pulling the trigger.
Kerr again started on the bench as Tony Gustavsson opted to stick with a winning starting XI, but it took just 10 minutes of the second half for the coach to play his trump card. The striker took to the pitch in place of Van Egmond to the loudest ovation of the night to that point. Kerr’s first action was to catch her boot in the turf and stumble, but it was followed quickly by a blistering run with the ball to the edge of the area before a cut back to Raso whose belter forced a flying save from Peyraud-Magnin. The energy had shifted in an instant, but still chances were not converted.
Still goalless with only 10 minutes of regulation time remaining, frustrations seemed to reach boiling point on the pitch and sideline. Tackles late, shirts tugged at, coaches fuming from behind their white-dashed lines. The desperation came to naught, sending the game into extra time.
With nearly 50,000 people on the edge of their seats, things took a strange turn in the first half of extra-time when French substitute Becho appeared to take the ball well over the goalline, only for it to go unnoticed, much to the displeasure of the crowd behind the goal.
In a flash of gold shirts, the subsequent corner resulted in the ball finding the back of the net off Kennedy’s head, only for the referee to rule she was dragged down by Renard. The look on Kennedy’s face told the story of just how close Australia came to packing up their camp at that point.
But it was penalties in the end, not an own goal, that determined this seesawing match. Against England in Wednesday’s semi-finalin Sydney, the Matildas will hope to ride the high of Brisbane, and surely now, the thought of playing in a World Cup final on home soil is becoming a tantalisingly real possibility.
