Vivianne Miedema became the Netherlands' record scorer in a 3-1 win Saturday over Cameroon, advancing the Dutch to the next round of the Women's World Cup in France.
A last-gasp goal from Jill Roord gave the European champions a narrow 1-0 win over New Zealand in their opening Group E match, and they also had to dig deep against a determined Cameroon.
Cameroon, heading for an early exit after losing its second game in a row, was level at halftime as Gabrielle Onguene scored a little over two minutes after Miedema had opened the scoring.
But Dominique Bloodworth's first international goal early in the second half was added to by Miedema's 60th, taking the Netherlands to six points ahead of its final group outing against Canada, which plays New Zealand in Grenoble later Saturday.
60 - Vivianne Miedema scored her 60th goal for the Netherlands Women's team and is now the all-time top goal scorer of @oranjevrouwen. Legendary. #NED pic.twitter.com/ooT1nWyJUw
— OptaJohan (@OptaJohan) June 15, 2019
Miedema's first goal came four minutes before halftime.
Shanice van de Sanden exchanged passes with Jackie Groenen down the right and picked out the run of Miedema, who sent her diving header away from Annette Ngo Ndom from the edge of the 6-yard box.
Netherlands' lead lasted just 154 seconds, though, as Onguene made the most of some slack defending by heading Raissa Feudjio's long ball past stranded keeper Sari van Veenendaal and into the empty net.
That was the first goal the Netherlands had conceded in 443 minutes of play, but it took less than three minutes of the second half for the Dutch to restore their advantage through Bloodworth's close-range finish at the second attempt.
Miedema overtook Manon Melis as her country's leading scorer five minutes from time with a powerful finish past Ngo Ndom after cutting inside from the left.
Key Opta Facts
- Netherlands scored more than once in a Women's World Cup match for the first time, while it also registered consecutive wins in the competition for the first time.
- Cameroon has lost four of its last five matches at the Women's World Cup (W1), losing three in a row. Cameroon is the fifth African nation to lose three consecutive games in the competition after Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria.
- Netherlands has won 13 and lost none of its 16 previous matches against teams from Africa.