Captain Sam Kerr paid tribute to her teammates’ spirit after the Matildas fought back from two goals down to a stage a dramatic comeback against Brazil.
Australia trailed to first-half goals from Martha and Cristiane but Caitlin Foord scored on the stroke of half-time to give Ante Milicic's side hope.
MATCH REPORT: Foord and Logarzo spark comeback as Matildas stun Brazil
RELIVE: All the action as it happened in Montpellier in our match day live blog
Chloe Logarzo’s rocket levelled the scores on 58 minutes before an own goal by Monica eight minutes later, under pressure from Kerr, made it 3-2 and turned the game in the Matildas favour.
Kerr and company battled out the closing stages to secure their first points of FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019™ and the 25-year-old praised the team’s mental strength.
“I’m so proud of the girls,” Kerr said.
“We knew we were in it at half-time, there were a lot of critics talking about us, but we’re back!
“It’s just outside noise, we don’t listen to the haters, look at that comeback performance from the deep and I love these girls, they are something else.
“You can see what it means to us. We were so disappointed after the first game and Brazil are a top ten team. The reaction from the team at half-time, I love these girls, and we’re back in it.”
LIVE BLOG: Keep up to date with all of the build up, reviews and latest news from France
GET TO KNOW THE SQUAD: Goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders, forwards
Head coach Ante Milicic insists the Matildas will not be getting carried away with the emotion evoked by such an epic victory.
“The team doesn’t want to give up and we like to do it the hard way,” Milicic said.
“We scored at a good time. At 2-0 down, to score right before half-time gave us belief, gave us a little bit of momentum, so I’m delighted for the girls.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It’s a win, we’re off the mark, it’s three points. We need to analyse what we need to do better and improve on but it’s definitely good confidence for us. We’ll recover well and prepare for Jamaica.”
World Cup France 2019™ – Group C – Next Australia match
Jamaica v Australia
Date: Wednesday, 19 June 2019 (AEST)
Venue: Stade des Alpes, Grenoble
Kick-off: 5.00am AEST (9.00pm local time, Tuesday 18 June)
#GetOnside and show your support for the bid at AusBid2023.com.
