Rosana’s 54th minute goal really should not have been. The Matildas were guilty of indulging the Brazilians entry into their box. They had at least three chances to clear or muscle them off the ball. Be that as it may, when the moment came Rosana niftily flicked the ball onto her left side creating a clear path to goal and her volley had both power and direction carrying it away from Melissa Barbieri.
Till then both teams looked fairly evenly matched with very little difference in possession and chances. The Matildas had their best chance when Lisa De Vanna surged ahead after the Brazilian defense whiffed on a long ball. With the defenders giving chase and only Andreia to beat, De Vanna rushed her shot and the result was a harmless blooper over the crossbar.
The Australians kept up the pressure and set piece specialist Collette McCallum’s corner put the Brazilians into damage control mode but they managed to avoid a last minute embarrassment.
This is surprisingly turning out to be a tough group. Both Norway and Brazil are two excellent teams and they struggled to beat Equatorial Guinea and Australia.