The New Zealand Women’s Football Team’s Olympic campaign ended tonight, following a 2-0 defeat to Sweden, who topped Group G undefeated.

Reflecting on the result, head coach Tom Sermanni said:

“We knew we were going to be in a very difficult group and we've come up against the Sweden side has beaten the number one team in the world and a very good Australian team, and then, probably one of the favourites to win this tournament. So particularly considering we gave two goals away quite early in the game, I was really happy with our effort, and our discipline, and just the way the players continue to work really hard for 90 minutes.”

Reflecting on the tournament overall, he said there were several things he took from the campaign.

“The first thing is the importance of good preparation is one thing, which obviously we didn't have, the importance of moving forward, the importance of depth within the squad, the importance of being able to get the team together on a regular basis to be able to play together and to build on the foundation of some of the good things that [the team] did in this tournament in the sense that - particularly today - when, you know, they've lost their first two games and were 2-0 down, we could easily have capitulated in the second half of that game.

“So there's a lot of those good qualities and tendencies in the team. We need to continue to build on them and continue to build the depth and the quality in the squad.”

Final score:

Sweden 2 (Anna Anvegard 19’; Madelen Janogy 30’) 

New Zealand 0

Article added: Wednesday 28 July 2021