Completing a must-win comeback for the ages in their second Group game at the FIFA Women’s World Cup was an achievement in and of itself. But the Matildas managed to set a number of team, tournament and individual records following their stunning 3-2 win that keeps the Aussies on course to progress from Group C. We recap those records made during the ‘Miracle in Montpellier’ in the latest edition of #MilestoneMonday
A record comeback
After trailing Brazil 0-2 at the Stade de la Mosson after 38 minutes, the Matildas engineered the Miracle of Montpellier, with Caitlin Foord and Chloe Logarzo’s efforts topped by a late seleção own goal.
The result – a vital one given the Matildas would have bowed out of the tournament with a loss – became just the second team to have come from 2-0 down to win at the Women’s World Cup (Sweden achieved the outcome against Germany at the World Cup in 1995)
The 3-2 result also made the Matildas the first team to come from behind to beat Brazil in the tournament’s history, while the three goals were the most goals Brazil had conceded at the Group stage in 20 years of the tournament.
Individual Brilliance: Foord and Logarzo net first World Cup Goals
A catalogue of players also achieved significant personal milestones during Friday’s win. Striker Caitlin Foord became the first woman to score against Brazil in a World Cup Group match in 16 years, while the goal itself was Foord’s first at a FIFA Women’s World Cup.
While Foord said the result was more important than her individual goal, she was “just stoked that we won”.
“To do it coming back from 2-0, the excitement and all those emotions were going to be there. It was almost a sigh of relief for us to know our World Cup journey is still alive. It just shows the character of the team, to be able to pick it up and come back with the win. At the end of the day to get one is nice, but again I wouldn’t have been happy if I had scored and we had lost. I am just stoked that we won.”
Player of the Match Chloe Logarzo also scored her first World Cup goal in an influential performance that had pundits and fans raving.
Logarzo also demonstrated the current feeling between the tight-knit Matildas group, revealing her ‘Superwoman’ goal celebration was a tribute to injured defender Laura Alleway. Logarzo also dedicated her POTM trophy to head coach Ante Milicic.
“My goal celebration was for her [Alleway]. She sings [Alicia Keys’] ‘Superwoman’ to me before I play. That’s her forte, I am tone deaf. She sits right next to me and does it every game, so it was really hard for me to lose her [to injury].”
World Cup debutants
Despite the importance of the result and occasion, coach Ante Milicic found an opportunity to change things up from the Italy defeat, handing Emily Gielnik and Kirsty Roestbakken their FIFA Women’s World Cup debuts for the massive clash.
Gielnik, who first played for Australia back in 2012, finally made her debut at the World Cup, while for 18-year-old Roestbakken, made her international debut as well.
For the Canberra United teenager, the experience was particularly memorable, given that one of her opponents, Brazilian midfielder Marta, was a childhood inspiration.
“I always looked up to Marta. She is a great player and she still is,” Roestbakken told The Age. “I used to watch her when I was younger and I shook her hand after the game, I was like ‘woah’. It was pretty amazing. Coming into camp, during a World Cup, has been awesome. It’s been surreal and unreal. To get my debut against Brazil, that was an awesome game.
