Stephanie Catley, the Australian defender, has praised the Super Falcons‘ style of play following their 3-2 triumph over the Matildas on Thursday.
Catley, who was captain of the Aussies in the match on Thursday, stated that the nine-time African champions’ counter-attacks were deadly.
Statistics of the game showed Australia had 26 attempts on goal compared to the Super Falcons’ 11 but could only muster one more attempt to Nigeria’s six that was actually on target.
The Matildas also had 15 corners to Nigeria’s two, although both teams scored from those set-piece attempts.
“Obviously, I am extremely disappointed,” Catley said after the game. “I think this was a massive opportunity for us that we obviously let slide, but it’s tournament football, and this sort of thing happens.
“We’ve just got to move on as quickly as possible—on to Canada now. This is what World Cups are all about.
“It was definitely not our best performance. We created a lot of opportunities that we potentially could have finished. I haven’t seen the statistics, but I assume we had a fair few shots. If some of those go in, maybe it’s a different story, but they (Nigeria) were great on the counter, and they finished their chances.”
To advance to the next round of the competition, Australia must defeat Olympic champions Canada in Melbourne on Monday.
