Brilliant Portugal women thrash Iceland 4-1 to edge closer to maiden World Cup qualification | OneFootball

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·12 October 2022

Brilliant Portugal women thrash Iceland 4-1 to edge closer to maiden World Cup qualification

Article image:Brilliant Portugal women thrash Iceland 4-1 to edge closer to maiden World Cup qualification

Last night saw another clear demonstration of the giant strides that have been made in women’s football in recent years in Portugal.

The female Seleção beat Iceland, 14th in the FIFA rankings, 4-1 after extra time in Paços de Ferreira.


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Portugal now face an intercontinental playoff in February to try and make history and qualify for the World Cup for the first time.

“I’m all out of words – they know how much I admire them,” said coach Francisco Neto about his players after the full-time whistle.

“It’s a hugely emotional moment. This is a passion. A passion for the country, for what we are doing. It’s incredible the way we have grown in these last few years, thanks to the hard work of a lot of people.

“We’re very happy. We still have a long way to go in growth and we have to continue. As for the immediate future, we depend on ourselves alone (to qualify for the World Cup) and that is the best feeling in the world.”

Given the quality shown by Portugal’s national women’s team over a sustained period of time, it would be a good idea to bet now on them to take advantage of their upward trajectory.

Having finished second in World Cup qualification Group H, behind Germany (ranked 2nd in the world), Portugal have had to negotiate two hurdles to reach this stage. In the first play-off the Seleção beat Belgium (ranked 19th in the world) 2-1 in Vizela thanks to goals from Diana Silva and Fátima Pinto.

Extra time avalanche

That set up last night’s second playoff against Iceland. Portugal survived a scare when Iceland took the lead early in the second half, but the goal was ruled out by VAR for a foul in the build-up.

In the 55th minute Portugal were awarded a penalty, Gunnlaugsdottir was sent off for the foul and Carole Costa scored from the spot to give the hosts the lead. But the visitors hit back to equalise shortly afterwards from a Viggosdottir header and no more goals were scored before the 90 minutes were up.

Portugal completely dominated the 30 minutes of extra time. Diana Silva, Tatiana Pinto and Francisca Nazareth scored three excellent goals to trigger wild celebrations on the pitch and among the large crowd at the Estádio Capital do Móvel.

If other results had gone their way, the party would have been ever more exuberant, but wins for Switzerland and Ireland in the other playoffs meant qualification for the World Cup would have to wait.

Portugal will play a single playoff on 22 February next year against one of the following opponents: Chinese Taipei, Thailand, Cameroon, Senegal, Haiti, Panama, Paraguay, Chile or Papua New Guinea.

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