Japan beat Ada Hegerberg’s Norway (3-1) in Wellington on Saturday and continues to impress by qualifying for the quarter-finals of the World Cup, after flying over the group stage.
This match between two former world champions, one of the shocks of the 8th, quickly turned in the direction of Japan, winner in 2011, and now with 14 goals since the start of the World Cup. With this elimination, Norway, titled in 1995, continues to accumulate disappointments and seemed on a thread throughout the competition in Oceania. As ruthless as in the group stage (11 goals scored, 0 conceded), the Japanese are more than ever favorites of the tournament. Conversely, the players of coach Hege Riise, who had to do without the 2018 Ballon d’Or Ada Hegerberg for a good part of the match, were roughed up from the start. The Lyonnaise returned for the last quarter of an hour.
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The Japanese started very strong in this round of 16, easily opening the scoring: on a tense cross from Hinata Miyazawa, Norwegian midfielder Ingrid Syrstad Engen scored against her side, deceiving her goalkeeper taken on the wrong foot (15th ). Suffocated, the Norwegians equalized quickly, on their first opportunity and against the course of the match (20th), with a powerful header from Guro Reiten, the Chelsea midfielder (20th). The Japanese took the upper hand after returning from the locker room, with a goal from Risa Shimizu (50th), then Hinata Miyazawa (81st), alone taking the lead in the tournament scoring charts with five goals.
Qualified in the last group match against the Philippines (6-0) thanks to a hat-trick from Sophie Román Haug, the Scandinavians, who avoided the sporting accident unlike the Germans, were unable to cope with the Japanese power in 8th. Since the start of the tournament, their journey has been eventful on the pitch, with a defeat in the opening match against New Zealand (1-0), but also outside.
Symbol of the negative spiral, the winger Caroline Graham Hansen, one of the executives of the workforce, had publicly charged the coach Hege Riise, after the draw against Switzerland (0-0). The 28-year-old FC Barcelona player had not digested being a substitute at kick-off, a surprise choice by the technician in search of solutions to revive an attack that was pointing to zero goals. Against Japan, Graham Hansen is behind the action of the Norwegian goal. In the quarterfinals next Friday (9:30 a.m.), Japan will be opposed to Sweden or the United States, a future clash.
