Australia have continued their perfect start to the Asian Cup overnight, securing a 2-1 win over Thailand to advance from the group stage with three wins from as many matches.
With safe passage to the knockout stages already secured, coach Tony Gustavsson opted for massive changes in his line-up, making nine changes from the previous match.
Emily van Egmond scored a couple of minutes before the interval, while Sam Kerr came off the bench and sealed the match with ten to go.
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The pair are first and second for the entire tournament in the golden boot race, Kerr with seven and van Egmond with five, ahead of China’s Wang Shuang and South Korea’s Ji So-yun with four apiece.
In the fourth minute of injury time Thailand grabbed a consolation goal through Nipawan Panyosuk – the first Australia have conceded in the tournament after 18-0 and 4-0 wins over Indonesia and the Philippines, respectively.
Gustavsson was pleased with how annoyed his players were to allow a goal, even one of such little consequence.
“I’m happy at how upset the team were after the game. Not happy that we won the group and won the game, but they were upset about the goal that we conceded in overtime,” he said afterwards.
“The players were really upset that we conceded that goal, to not keep that clean sheet and that says a lot about the mission.
“The other thing I’m happy about is that we had two clear set goals for the group stage; one was to win the group and second was to get out of the group with as many players as possible available for the playoffs, but also fresh and peaking in form.
The Matildas will now play South Korea in the quarters on Sunday, and should they win, either Chinese Taipei or a rematch with the Philippines and former Australian coach Alen Stajcic in the semis.
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