The Matildas have dominated Uzbekistan in front of over 54,000 people to secure their spot at the Paris Olympics.
The Matildas started the match perfectly with a goal inside the first minute, after Uzbekistan’s Qizi Asadova deflected the ball into her own net. Veteran striker Michelle Heyman continued the Matilda’s strong start, scoring twice to take Australia to a 3-0 lead after just 10 minutes.
Torpey, Fowler and Foord would also find the back of the net during the half as the Matilda’s controlled the match. Heyman scored twice more, taking her total to four and helping the Matidlas finish the half with an 8-0 lead.
Early in the second half, Uzbekistan goal keeper Jonimqulova suffered an injury which forced her substitution for Qizi Gulomova. Thankfully though for the Uzbek second choice keeper, the second half proved to be less frantic than the first. Raso and Sayer would go onto to score for the Matildas, taking the final margin double digits.
The Matildas will not pursue their first ever Olympic medal against 11 other teams at the Paris Olympics.
Network Benefits
Network 10 enjoyed their largest audience of the year with a total reach of 2.1m people and average audience of over 900k people watching the match.
Frustratingly for Network 10 though, it will again miss out on broadcasting a Matilda’s tournament as Channel Nine will broadcast the Paris Olympics. This follows Network 10 losing out on broadcasting the Women’s World Cup to Channel 7.
In the stadium, a sellout crowd of over 54,000 people represented the twelfth consecutive home sell-out for the team which has recently been crowned Australia’s favourite.
The Beautiful Game 