Sam Kerr was the hero, scoring a sensational goal as the Matildas defeated China 2-1 in Perth on Tuesday night to book their place in the Asian Cup final.<\/p>\n
Caitlin Foord scored the opening goal when Mary Fowler and Ellie Carpenter combined in a delightful piece of team play.<\/p>\n
Then disaster struck in the first half when Matildas goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold conceded a penalty for obstructing a Chinese player in the box \u2014 the penalty was China\u2019s only goal for the game. <\/p>\n
Kerr scored the matchwinning goal in the second half in a trademark piece of Matildas counterattacking play with a world class finish with her left foot on a very tight angle. <\/p>\n
The Matildas captain celebrated in jubilant scenes as she helped her team book their place in Saturday\u2019s Asian Cup final in Sydney. <\/p>\n
Watch Sam Kerr\u2019s goal in the video above<\/p>\n
Australia will take on the winner of Wednesday\u2019s semi-final between Japan and South Korea as they aim to win the Asian Cup for the first time since 2010. <\/p>\n
This golden generation of Matildas veterans get the chance to win a legacy defining trophy after fourth placed finishes at the the 2023 World Cup and Tokyo Olympics. <\/p>\n
It was a physical contest against China, with Katrina Gorry, Kerr and Foord copping some jersey pulling and studs-up challenges. <\/p>\n
10.19pm – Sam Kerr gives Matildas the lead<\/p>\n
Death, taxes and the Matildas scoring on the counter-attack. <\/p>\n
China had dominated the start of the second half, but Kaitlyn Torpey got the ball back in the middle of the field, giving the Aussies an advantage. <\/p>\n
Sam Kerr got the ball out wide to Caitlin Foord, who delivered a pass back to the Matildas skipper in space. <\/p>\n
Kerr nudged it around the goalkeeper and slotted the goal with her left foot on a tight angle, celebrating in style in front of her home crowd. It\u2019s the type of finish that only the best strikers in the world could pull off.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is is perfection from Sam Kerr!\u201d commentator Grace Gill exclaimed in commentary on Paramount Plus.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s Sam Kerr\u2019s house and doesn\u2019t she make that known.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andy Harper said: \u201cThis is the finish of a natural killer. She is incredible, Sam Kerr.\u201d<\/p>\n
Disappointing crowd, empty seats<\/p>\n
The crowd figure for the semi-final at Perth Stadium has been confirmed as 35,170.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no two ways about it, that\u2019s a disappointing turnout for the Matildas, who are used to commanding record crowds nearly every time they play.<\/p>\n
There were swathes of empty seats at Perth Stadium, which has a capacity of 60,000 \u2014 it was a 6pm kick-off local time on a Tuesday night, but tournament organisers would have been hoping for a higher attendance.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t help that the game was played in an oval stadium. <\/p>\n
A crowd of 60,279 watched the Matildas\u2019 final group stage game against South Korea at Sydney\u2019s Olympic Stadium, setting women\u2019s Asian Cup crowd record.<\/p>\n
But that game ended in a draw and inferior goal difference meant the Matildas finished second in their group and had to travel to Perth for the quarterfinal and semi-final.<\/p>\n
South Korea face Japan in the other semifinal in Sydney on Wednesday. The Asian Cup final will be held at Sydney\u2019s Olympic Stadium on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
The Asian Cup has been held across Sydney, the Gold Coast and Perth. Many fans pondered whether there would have been a crowd of 50,000 had the game been held at Melbourne\u2019s Marvel Stadium, for instance. <\/p>\n
9.50pm – All tied up at halftime<\/p>\n
It\u2019s 1-1 at halftime in what has been a tense contest. Katrina Gorry looked sore at times after copping some hard challenges. <\/p>\n
China\u2019s Wang Aifang was given a yellow card for a studs-up challenge on Gorry, with the studs scraping the Aussie midfieler\u2019s calf, leaving her in agony. <\/p>\n
The Chinese player can consider herself extremely lucky not to be given a straight red card. <\/p>\n
9.26pm – China equalise in penalty drama<\/p>\n
China have equalised with a costly penalty call going against Mackenzie Arnold after the referee deemed the Aussie goalkeeper had impeded China\u2019s Zhang Linyan in the box. <\/p>\n
The ball bounced backwards off Clare Hunt\u2019s shoulder and favoured the Chinese player in the box, who had a heavy touch and ran past Arnold to get ball, with the goalkeeper making slight contact with the opponent. <\/p>\n
The referee immediately blew the whistle and gave Arnold a yellow card, but she was adamant she didn\u2019t trip the Chinese player. <\/p>\n
The penalty was probably there but Zhang certainly exaggerated the contact. <\/p>\n
Unfortunately for the Australians, VAR judged it a penalty and Zhang Linyan made no mistake from the penalty spot. <\/p>\n
Andy Harper said on Paramount Plus: \u201cA mix up in the Aussie defence, Zhang getting around the goalkeeper with a heavy-ish touch. Mackenzie commits and then withdraws. There was contact.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
9.17pm – Matildas score first<\/p>\n
The Matildas have taken a 1-0 thanks to an excellent team goal in the 17th minute.<\/p>\n
Mary Fowler passed wide to Ellie Carpenter who passed back into Fowler, who delivered a cutback to Caitlin Foord, who perfectly timed her run and put the ball in the back of the net.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Foord\u2019s 40th goal for Australia.<\/p>\n
The Matildas had a tough chance in the early stages but Mary Fowler volleyed Kaitlyn Torpey\u2019s ball over the goal.<\/p>\n
The Chinese team, coached by Australian Ante Milicic, had a shot on target in the ninth minute that was saved by Mackenzie Arnold. The defending champs pressed hard early and put the Tillies defence under a bit of pressure. <\/p>\n
8.45pm – Two changes to Matildas XI<\/p>\n
The Matildas have made two changes to their starting side, recalling Steph Catley after she was concussed<\/a> earlier in the tournament, and giving Kyra Cooney-Cross her first start of the tournament. <\/p>\n Matildas XI: Mackenzie Arnold, Clare Hunt, Steph Catley, Kaitlyn Torpey, Caitlin Foord, Mary Fowler, Alanna Kennedy, Katrina Gorry, Sam Kerr (c), Ellie Carpenter, Kyra Cooney-Cross<\/p>\n 8.30pm – Veteran breaks all-time record <\/p>\n Emily van Egmond is set to make her 170th national team appearance, which will see her overtake Clare Polkinghorne as the most capped Matildas player.<\/p>\n The 32-year-old midfielder, who has played at four FIFA World Cups, has been named on the bench for the semi-final against China. <\/p>\n Van Egmond paid tribute to her current teammates, many of whom have also racked up well over 100 caps for the Matildas. <\/p>\n \u201cMy debut was actually against Korea DPR in 2010, and a lot of the girls who are here today in the squad have been a part of my career since the start,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s obviously really special. But what will cap off the night will be getting that win.<\/p>\n \u201cI would probably just say the girls who have grown up with from a young age – the likes of Sam Kerr, Caitlin Foord, Alanna Kennedy, Steph Catley, Hayley Raso, the list goes on.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s also what makes our team quite unique, and a special group to be a part of.\u201d<\/p>\n Read related topics:China<\/a>Perth<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sam Kerr was the hero, scoring a sensational goal as the Matildas defeated China 2-1 in Perth on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-546485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546485","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=546485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}