The Matildas were looking for a few more goals in their second AFC Women’s Asian Cup Australia 2026 game and certainly found them, beating Iran 4-0 in Robina.<\/p>\n
Here’s how the internet reacted.<\/p>\n
Australian fans were buoyed by news that senior goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold was approaching full fitness, and that star midfielder Kyra Cooney-Cross had trained on the Gold Coast, having not made the squad for the first match.<\/p>\n
The opening match against the Philippines saw the Matildas hog 85 per cent of possession, fire off 14 shots, take 35 touches in their opponent’s box and yet, in a 1-0 win, only register an xG (expected goals) of 1.10. Basically, Australia dominated territory and ball control, but produced far less than it should have in terms of good, clear chances.<\/p>\n
Iran is ranked 27 places lower than the Philippines and was sure to adopt a similarly ultra-defensive posture, settled firmly in their low block, with their fists clenched and their teeth gritted.<\/p>\n
When the starting XI was released, Arnold wasn’t between the sticks, with Chloe Lincoln retaining her spot. But Mary Fowler started, Cooney-Cross was on the bench, and the odds of a more fluent attacking display strengthened.<\/p>\n
On a warm and drizzly night on the Gold Coast, the ball slid over a slick pitch as the match kicked off.<\/p>\n
The contest settled in to what was to be the rhythm of the evening: Australia assuming possession, Iran only pressing with intensity when the Matildas passed halfway, at which point a swarm descended where, if the ball was won, it was hoofed hopefully clear, and the dance began again.<\/p>\n
Then the rhythm was disrupted by a sudden, new element, as a Carpenter run found Amy Sayer out on the right. She looked to cross, and her overhit attempt floated just inside the far post, with the Iranian keeper scrambling in vain. A fortunate fluke? Sayer it isn’t so!<\/p>\n
Another early goal with a healthy slice of luck, but would the Matildas go on to eat the whole pie? They feigned another bite, as Foord was played in by a neat Kerr pass to sweep home a second goal from the left hand side of the box. But she was deemed marginally offside after video review.<\/p>\n
Mary Fowler then dribbled home a wholly legal second goal, as a goalkeeper fumble in the wet gifted her an open net after Foord’s lofted cross.<\/p>\n
A third came soon after.<\/p>\n
Fowler and Foord were switching flanks, Sayer was buzzing from side to side, the Iranians were bamboozled as crosses were being fired in from all angles.<\/p>\n
Here, after some aerial chaos in the box, Sam Kerr teed up Kennedy, who thrashed home from a central position.<\/p>\n
Foord missed a sitter, a generous act, before the first half was out.<\/p>\n
Sayer had a good chance too, side-footing a Fowler cross just wide. Sam Kerr had a fourth goal ruled out for offside by the VAR, and then missed a near-open goal, albeit while lurching, one-legged, to reach a cross. It could have been much worse for Iran, and it was 3-0 at half-time.<\/p>\n
Iran conceded a penalty within 90 seconds of the restart after an unfortunate handball, but VAR \u2014 a central player in this contest, apparently \u2014 called the referee over to the monitor, and it was promptly overturned.<\/p>\n
Iran had its first shot a few minutes later, coming after a long free kick into the Matildas’ box, but spinning wide.<\/p>\n
Before the hour mark, Alanna Kennedy had her second goal, a corner stood up by Emily van Egmond, and Kennedy there at the far post, tall timber between two smaller Iranian markers, heading down into the turf and into the net.<\/p>\n
Wholesale changes were then made: Kerr, Fowler and Foord off; Hayley Raso, Holly McNamara and Remy Siemsen on.<\/p>\n
Australia eased off slightly, and some injury stoppages disrupted the tempo, including Raso copping not one, but two full-force clearances right to the face.<\/p>\n
The rain was teeming down, Iranian players were going down left and right with knocks and “knocks”, and Australia was still pushing half-heartedly for goals.<\/p>\n
It ended, somewhat mercifully, after 11 minutes of added time.<\/p>\n
The Matildas were much more coherent in attack here, as they needed to be. And although they have secured passage to the next stage of the tournament, because of a goal-difference deficit, they now need to beat South Korea to top their group.<\/p>\n
Joe Montemurro gave his vigorous post-match talk to the team, all arranged in a tight circle in the middle of the pitch, and you could see the force behind his words.<\/p>\n
The gist of his message? Don’t rest on your laurels, the real test is still to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Matildas were looking for a few more goals in their second AFC Women’s Asian Cup Australia 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[54181,64,63,132254,596,5575,28526,44964,44965,13198,85,117713,254234],"class_list":{"0":"post-521512","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-afc","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-ellie-carpenter","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-iran","14":"tag-joe-montemurro","15":"tag-matildas","16":"tag-sam-kerr","17":"tag-soccer","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-the-matildas","20":"tag-womens-asian-cup"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}