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Michael Church

China face an uphill battle to book a spot in the knockout rounds of the Women’s World Cup after Shui Qingxia’s continental champions suffered a late 1-0 defeat in their tournament opener against Denmark in Perth on Saturday evening.
Amalie Vangsgaard’s 90th minute header condemned China to the loss in a game slated before kick-off as a must-win encounter with the pair drawn in the same group as heavily favoured European champions England.
The Women’s Asian Cup holders had been unable to find a way through to goal in an evenly fought contest before substitute Vangsgaard’s looping header bounced past goalkeeper Xu Huan to give the Danes a vital victory.
While England’s narrow 1-0 win over World Cup debutants Haiti earlier in the day suggests the contest for a place in the knockout rounds might be closer than expected prior to the tournament, Shui will rue the three dropped points.
China take on Haiti in their second Group D game in Adelaide on Friday and the Steel Roses must win that encounter to have any hope of maintaining their record of advancing to the knockout rounds every time they have appeared at the Women’s World Cup finals.


The Chinese will end their group phase campaign against the English, currently ranked fourth in the world and among the favourites for the title, on August 1, also in Adelaide.
“I told the players that they played very well,” Shui said. “They played to the best of their abilities and I’m very appreciative of them for their performances. It’s a pity we lost that goal in the last few minutes.
“Throughout the game, and especially in the second half, the physicality and other factors as well as our focus weren’t good enough for me.
“We were faced by all kinds of different situations so in the future and in other games when there are problems I’m accountable. I will look to do more in the future.”
Backed by most of the crowd inside the Perth Rectangular Stadium, who bellowed out a rousing rendition of March of the Volunteers before kick-off, Shui’s side made a bright start to keep Denmark goalkeeper Lene Christensen on her toes.
Chen Qiaozhu had an early view of goal, thumping her left-foot effort from distance wide of the target while a bobbling strike by Zhang Linyan from 20 yards after a neat turn wrong-footed the Danish midfield was gathered at full stretch by a diving Christensen.
The Danes began to assert themselves in midfield with Janni Thomsen seeing her speculative attempt blocked by the Chinese defence as Lars Sondergaard’s side edged closer to goal.
China, though, were unruffled, asserting themselves in the centre to control the game and it was the Asian champions who looked the more likely to register in the lead-up to the interval, threatening on the counterattack.

The second half introduction of Wang Shuang sparked a response from the Steel Roses, her centre from the right creating panic in the Danish defence before Li Mengwen thumped her shot off target metres from goal. Wang herself was then denied by a sprawling Christensen.
China’s energy after the resumption prompted a reaction, with Josefine Hasbo guilty of a glaring miss six minutes into the second half when she nodded over the bar from 10 yards out having seen Nicoline Sorensen’s cross from the left headed into her path.
Sorensen was finding more space on the wing and threatened to prize open China’s backline with another promising delivery, only for Chen’s perfectly timed header to prevent Pernille Harder from pouncing.
The Chinese went closer still to conceding with 15 minutes remaining as captain Wang Shanshan almost put the ball in her own net, heading Sorensen’s deep free kick across the face of goal with Karen Holmgaard arriving just too late to drive the ball over the line.
But with barely a minute on the clock the winner came, Vangsgaard meeting Harder’s corner from the left to leave China’s qualification hopes already hanging in the balance.
“We realise we might have had some issues in the details, but overall the strategy was fine and we should be able to form our tactics according to this game and improve in the future,” said Shui.
“All in all we did gain some opportunities and we hope we can improve ourselves through our constant effort so that the China team can have better results and improve in the future.”


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Sport

Football

Substitute Amalie Vangsgaard scores in 90th minute to earn side 1-0 win at Rectangular Stadium
England beat Haiti in earlier game in Group D, leaving things evenly poised ahead of second round of matches


Substitute Amalie Vangsgaard scores in 90th minute to earn Denmark 1-0 win in Group D clash at Rectangular Stadium.


Haiti