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Australia won a fierce penalty shootout against France to advance to the medal games. In the host country of the World Cup, jubilation erupted after the match at the Brisbane stadium.
The solution came only in the tenth pair. The victory came with the 20th shot.
– Absolutely amazing thing. I have to wonder if France is the “permanent teacher” again, like Jonne Kunnas said, about ‘s experts Essi Sainio commented fresh in the commentary and referred to his expert colleague.
Kunnas himself excitedly followed the penalty shootout in the studio.
– Quite a 0–0. I get fired up for the dot races. When you think about, for example, all the details that are involved. Great football drama, Kunnas sets the mood.
Australia went into the penalty shootout as the underdog, so to speak, in terms of the statistics, because they got the second draw.
– Of course, many other factors affect the penalty shootout. I still think that the support of the home crowd helped in this shootout. It’s great that Australia’s story continues in these games. They build a wonderful story, about experts Maija Saari set the mood.
More on the topic: All the time, the most brutal means are used to decide the next places in the World Cup – we broke five myths about penalty kicks
Australia received significant additional help for the match when the striker, who suffered from injuries Sam Kerr returned to real action. One of the best strikers in the world entered the field in the 50th minute.
According to Kunnas, Australia’s performance offered signals that the team has the potential to go all the way to the championship in their home games.
– Australia defends from deep and attacks. Now something new came out with slower attacks. There were examples of more versatile playing in Australia’s game, Kunnas said about the success factors.
– Sam Kerr has been absent for most of the tournament. Now he can come and play the whole game. Australia has tremendous potential to grow even bigger, Maiju Ruotsalainen, one of the experts, continued.
The medal games have traveled far and wide in France, and it also has a reputation as a “long-lasting teacher”. Last year, France reached the EC semi-finals, but lost to Germany. Before that, other EC competitions had ended in the quarter-finals or the first group.
Now France will have the third World Cup in a row without medal games.
– Australia got an extra boost and caused chaos for the French defenders when Kerr came on the field. In the end, however, the pressure turned to France. Now France is surely wondering why they didn’t get the ball into the goal during overtime, Maija Saari described.
A reason was found for France’s tough decision
Australia had a chance to decide the match when the Australian goalkeeper first MacKenzie Arnold stretched out by Eve Perisset in front of the shot.
Arnold set himself up to take the lead, but rattled the ball into the post.
France made a tough decision in the penalty shootout when Pauline Peyraud-Magnin was taken off and France’s triple goalkeeper Solene Durand on the field only for penalty kicks.
The French coach Hervé Renard the media already got a hint of the tough decision earlier this week, when Renard ordered to stop filming in training. He wanted to be sure that the penalty kicks taken at the end of practice were not filmed.
French magazine However, L’Equipe could tell, what it’s all about. According to L’Equipe, Renard had been holding the ace up his sleeve for several weeks.
Durand, who will play in Sassuolo in Italy next season, is known as a penalty kick specialist. L’Equipe had asked Durand about a possible change to a purely penalty shootout even before the World Cup.
– To be honest, I hope we win the matches earlier. You don’t have to ask yourself this question then, Durand said.
– It would also be better for the heart. Our families will be at the World Cup too, so make sure they can handle the situation.
In the past, a similar trick has been seen in prestigious football competitions. Dutch men’s manager at the 2014 World Cup Louis van Gaal switched to penalty kicks on the field by Tim Krul. He made a save in Holland’s quarter-final win against Costa Rica.