By Nick Mulvenney
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Denmark coach Lars Sondergaard thought Australia’s first goal made all the difference as his team went down 2-0 to the co-hosts on Monday to bow out of their first Women’s World Cup campaign since 2007 in the last 16.
The Danes made all early the early running at Stadium Australia with Pernille Harder looking like the best player on the pitch but Australia caught them on the break in the 29th minute for Caitlin Foord to open the scoring.
“I think we were the best team, we played a very, very good game up until then,” he told reporters.
“We were brave in how we did it, put pressure on, had a few chances.
“But how it is in very even games, the first goal is very important. You can sit back, you can wait for the counter attacks and there’s a little bit more pressure on the other team.”
The 18th-ranked Danes opened their campaign with a 1-0 win over China before losing by the same score to European champions England and then beating Haiti 2-0 to progress to the knockout rounds second in their group.
Sondergaard said that given he was bedding in some new players, getting out into the knockout stages was a satisfactory result.
“Our goal from the beginning was that we would like to get through the group stage and after that anything can happen,” Sondergaard added.
“I think we have played very even games with the top nations, I think we’ve come a little bit closer to the top nations. It has been a World Cup of surprises but we weren’t surprised.
“And today we had an even game. I think the first goal decided it, I think if we had scored that first goal we could have gone further.
“So all in all, I’m satisfied, but I’m also very disappointed tonight.”
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Christian Radnedge)
