An injury-time strike from Emily van Egmond has spared the Matildas from a nightmare road to the Tokyo Olympics, salvaging a 1-1 draw with China in a thrilling clash at Bankwest Stadium
But a desperate late rally from Australia produced a miraculous leveller in the 93rd minute, when a calm and composed Kyah Simon found van Egmond outside the penalty box. Van Egmond then unleashed a terrific strike through a scramble of bodies and into the back of the net.
It was brilliant, brawny stuff from a team that not only left some of their best players back in China, but spent their first week in Australia holed up in a hotel, unable to leave due to coronavirus concerns."We came up against a team that was very well-drilled, very organised, very disciplined. We didn't have the solutions quick enough or often enough," he said. "The times that we did, we looked good.
Vietnam could do worse than to steal the blueprint laid out for them by China coach Jia Xiuquan, whose tactics suffocated the life out of Australia. Milicic needs to quickly find a way around such an approach, because if the Vietnamese don't replicate it, one of their opponents in Tokyo surely will.
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