Hayley Raso will battle for third place after defeat against England

Australia 1-3 England

Real Madrid’s new signing, Hayley Raso, started once again for Australia alongside Foord, Fowler and Kerr in attack.

It was an easy start to the match. The first action happened in 8’ with Sam Kerr’s run through the left side, coming on 1v1 against Earps where the goalkeeper came victorious. Ultimately it was determined that Kerr was offside, so the action didn’t count anyway. Hardly a minute later, Stanway managed a shot on goal from a small distance, but Arnold read her and made a quick save.

Lionesses went on to dominate the game. Matildas had troubles connecting passes with just above 50% mark of pass accuracy on paper. Around a half an hour mark, Matildas tried to capitalize a few times from England’s mistakes. In 30’ the corner kick for Australia that couldn’t reach any of the heads positioned in the box arrived to Raso’s feet, who then shot to the outer side of the net. A couple of minutes later she started an attack from cautiously following England until they were forced to make a mistake. After running through the middle all the way to the penalty box, she passed it to Carpenter on the right who made a cross back inside that just wasn’t precise enough.

After a couple of minutes of Australian attacks, England got a throw-in. They put it in the game quickly and with quick passes it reached Ella Toone who shot in the upper far part of the Australian net. England made it 0-1 in 36’. Australia wanted to answer Lionesses right after with a long shot by Gorry, but Earps didn’t have problems catching that one.

Until the end of the first half, Australia seemed determined to equalize but the crosses they kept doing were either too early or too late. England succeeded in making the hosts panic for the entire first half.

The second half began with Australia catching up with attacks. England had a couple more, but Matildas were looking much sharper. Fifteen minutes in they pushed Lionesses all the way to their box. In 63’ the results of their efforts came. Gorry pushed the ball to Kerr around the half-way line for the Chelsea striker to move forward alone against two England’s defenders. Stopping before entering the penalty area, Kerr shot a rocket and the dive that Mary Earps did was too little to stop the shot. Matildas got their equalizer.

In the next minutes, Matildas were looking energetic. However, they were prone to mistakes. Five minutes after the equalizer, Bronze ran on the right side and tried to shoot or cross from a dead angle. The ball was curving towards the goal but didn’t end up in. This action was followed by one more from England and an attempt from Australia to reach Kerr in attack once again, but nothing came from it.

However, in 71’, Greenwood’s long ball that reached the Australian defense slipped from Carpenter and unfortunately for her, Lauren Hemp was just behind her to get a hold of the ball and shoot it in the empty end of the net.

Right after the goal happened, the first substitution of the match was made. It was Courtnee Vine for Real Madrid’s Hayley Raso. The Australian Madridista was up against Alex Greenwood, orchestrating the right side of the Australian attack. She had a few shots and couple of close calls in which she’d miss the ball by an inch from a cross. Nothing came from them, but her efforts were valuable nevertheless.

The rest of the game consisted of Matildas pushing hard in the last 10 minutes of the encounter with three close calls. All efforts ended in vain as the Lionesses increased the lead in 89’ thanks to Alessia Russo. The added time was spent with England taking the game to the end.

Hayley Raso’s Australia were defeated by England with the result of 1-3 and their hopes of winning the world cup ended here. The hosts will still have a chance to grab the bronze in the match for the third place on August 19 at 10:00 CEST.