The second round of games for Group A saw New Zealand face the Philippines at Wellington Regional Stadium. Both teams have stayed with their original line-ups from the opening games of the tournament. Coming into the game New Zealand are looking to guarantee qualification to the knockout stage for the first time in the nation’s history, whilst the Philippines are striving to be the first debutants to score a goal in the tournament and cause an upset. A win today for New Zealand would see them win back-to-back competitive games for the first time in 4 years. For the Philippines, goal difference can be crucial in their efforts to progress through the group
As the game kicked off New Zealand had a positive start on the left-hand side which was repeatedly well defended by the Philippines. New Zealand dominated the early minutes of the game with a strong attacking side forcing the Philippines to play very defensively, however, the first goal of the game came from the defensive Philippines side. New Zealand gave the Philippines a dangerous free kick just in front of the halfway line which was excellently delivered into the box. The ball in was poorly defended by the New Zealand backline allowing Eggesvik to gather the ball on the right-hand side of the box where she perfectly crossed the ball to Sarina Bolden who excellently beat 2 New Zealand defenders to give the Philippines their first-ever world cup goal. As the half went on New Zealand became frustrated with their lack of conversion with Hannah Wilkinson gaining a yellow card after an aggressive tackle on the Philippines defender Sofia Harrison in the 42nd minute, just before the break.
During the break New Zealand made few changes to their squad, bringing on Olivia Chance and Annalie Longo for Indiah Paige Riley and Betsy Hassett and the Philippines remained with their original squad. The 2nd half began with an energetic New Zealand being very strong on the attacking side, putting the Philippines defence under immense pressure. The constant New Zealand attack frustrated the Philippines defence with Angela Beard gaining the Philippines their first yellow card of the game in the 48th minute. However, the Philippines overcame this frustration as they began to show tremendous pressure throughout the second half causing problems for the New Zealand side on both the attacking and defensive side. New Zealand scored in the 68th minute following a good cross from Wilkinson after managing to just keep the ball in play. Wilkinson’s cross was met by Jacqui Hands head where her looping header lofted the ball over the keeper to make it 1-1. However after a VAR review Wilkinson’s original run was deemed narrowly offside and the score remained 1-0 to the Philippines. As the game came to a close New Zealand were on their last chance to score an equaliser where an excellent shot from Grace Jale was crucially saved by Philippines goalkeeper Olivia-Davies McDaniel securing Philippines their first win at a world cup.
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