Japan’s surprise title charge at the FIFA Women’s World Cup gathered pace yesterday with a clinical 3-1 win over Norway to reach the last eight, while Spain thrashed Switzerland 5-1.
Japan, the 2011 champions, are to face either holders the US or Sweden in the quarter-finals and on this evidence they are likely to take some stopping.
They have won all four games in Australia and New Zealand — including a 4-0 thumping of Spain — scoring 14 times and conceding only once.
Photo: AFP
Hinata Miyazawa is also quickly becoming one of the breakout stars of a World Cup that has been full of shocks.
The 23-year-old got the third 9 minutes from time to seal Norway’s fate in front of 33,000 in Wellington.
She is now the tournament’s top scorer.
The teams went to the break level at 1-1, but Japan turned the screw on Norway in the second period through goals by Risa Shimizu and Miyazawa.
Spain crushed Switzerland to reach the quarter-finals for the first time in their history and are to face the Netherlands or South Africa next.
Aitana Bonmati played a starring role with a brace and two assists in front of 43,217 fans at Eden Park in Auckland, a record crowd for a football match in New Zealand.
Coach Jorge Vilda, who made five changes to his starting lineup including dropping reigning Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas, said he had “the 23 best players in the world.”
“Aitana played very well today, she scored goals and was player of the match, but the rest of the team played very well too. We have 23 Ballons d’Or,” he said.
Barcelona’s Bonmati said the humbling by Japan in the group stage had been on their minds.
“When you lose like we did the other day it is a really big blow, but to win 5-1 in a World Cup knockout tie, be through to the quarter-finals and make history, that shows we are a team,” the midfielder said. “It was not easy after the other day, but today we saw the character of the players and I hope we have a lot of days left here.”
Spain were simply a class above a Switzerland side who had reached the last 16 without conceding a goal, but whose exit means they have still never won a major tournament knockout game.
The US, who have underwhelmed so far in their pursuit of an unprecedented third World Cup crown in a row, play Sweden in Melbourne today.
It pits the two top-ranked sides left in the tournament after world No. 2 Germany’s shock early exit.
Today’s other last-16 encounter, 2019 runners-up the Netherlands must avoid becoming the latest top team to go out at the hands of a lower-ranked opponent.
South Africa, 54th in the world, beat Italy 3-2 to grab a place in the knockouts and defeating the Dutch would be another major upset.
“Look, we’ve been underestimated so many times before,” South Africa’s coach Desiree Ellis said on the eve of the game. “This group has shown that when the chips are down, they can stand up".
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