{"id":94699,"date":"2024-07-26T15:50:02","date_gmt":"2024-07-26T05:50:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=94699"},"modified":"2024-07-26T15:50:06","modified_gmt":"2024-07-26T05:50:06","slug":"matildas-lose-paris-olympics-opening-group-game-3-0-to-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=94699","title":{"rendered":"Matildas lose Paris Olympics opening group game 3-0 to Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Matildas’ quest for their first ever Olympic medal is off to the worst possible start, going down 3-0 to former gold medallists Germany in their opening group game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a stifling hot evening in Marseille, Tony Gustavsson’s side was back to full strength with the return of captain Steph Catley and forward Caitlin Foord to the starting line-up after missing their recent warm-up game against Canada, but their influence was muted against the relentless Germans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winger Jule Brand was particularly electric down the right, and almost opened the scoring for Germany in the first 10 minutes, pouncing on a counter-attacking long-ball from her own goalkeeper, but her shot sailed over the crossbar.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Australia were rarely given glimpses of goal in the opening half, with the front three of Foord, Hayley Raso, and Cortnee Vine well-marshalled by Germany’s solid defensive line. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poor touches, misplaced passes, and slow decisions made the Matildas’ job increasingly difficult against a fiercely quick and fired-up German outfit, whose counter-attacking tactics and set-plays posed regular dangers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, Germany opened their account off one of their seven corners, with towering centre-back Marina Hegering rising unchallenged at the back post to head the ball home in the 24th minute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mary Fowler, who floated in and out of the game, almost equalised off the restart, but her shot near the top of Germany’s box was blocked at the last moment by a desperate lunge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foord and Raso tried their best to stretch Germany’s defence on either wing, trying to create space for Fowler and Vine to exploit through the middle, but both attackers were neutralised by Germany’s equally talented full-backs, particularly young Giulia Gwinn, Germany’s corner-taker who notched two assists in this game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was Gwinn who teed up Germany’s second, which came once again from a corner in the 64th minute, with winger Lea Schueller leaping highest to bury it in the bottom corner without a single yellow shirt in sight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Matildas’ quest for their first ever Olympic medal is off to the worst possible start, going down 3-0 to former gold medallists Germany in their opening group game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":94701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11924,35,2053],"tags":[11962,11963,11960,11961],"class_list":["post-94699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2024-paris-olympics","category-breaking-news","category-paris","tag-caitlin-foord","tag-mary-fowler","tag-matildas","tag-steph-catley"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t