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Australia’s Matildas may struggle to make the quarter-finals at Rio 2016 after recording a 0-2 loss to their Canadian counterparts early on Thursday morning (AEST).
Despite recording 22 shots to eight for the match and playing a ten-woman side from the 18th minute onwards, the Matildas were unable to capitalise and failed to score.
Canada, on the other hand, started the match incredibly well, scoring the first goal just 21 seconds into the affair, the fastest goal on record on Olympic women’s football.
It wasn’t until the 80th minute that they added their second, leaving a long stretch of the game where the Matildas still seemed to be in the match despite the horror opening minute.
Canadian captain Christine Sinclair, who had set up the first goal, scored the second, and the match was essentially over.
It puts the Matildas in a difficult position because they will now need to win their pool match against Germany, or hope that Canada lose to both Germany and Zimbabwe, in order to finish second in the pool.
Those are both against-the-odds scenarios, but the Matilda can still make it into the quarter-finals from third if they’re one of the two best third-place teams.
The remaining two matches are therefore absolutely vital. The Matildas’ next is against Germany on Sunday morning from 7am (AEST). An upset there, against the world No.2 Germans, could put them back in the conversation to finish second or even first in the pool. At worst, they must look to draw it.
Their third and final pool match comes against Zimbabwe. If they’ve lost or drawn against Germany, it’ll be this match that decides whether or not they progress to the quarter-finals – they’ll need to win, and probably win big, given they’re already on a negative goal-difference.
The team has fought their way back from difficult positions before however so don’t write them off at this stage – and if they can get to the quarters, anything is possible from there.