Women's World Cup 2019: Netherlands survives New Zealand with Jill Roord's late goal

Joe Wright

Women's World Cup 2019: Netherlands survives New Zealand with Jill Roord's late goal image

Netherlands snatched a 1-0 victory over New Zealand in its opening Women's World Cup match on Tuesday thanks to Jill Roord's stoppage-time header.

The 22-year-old, who signed for Arsenal from Bayern Munich last month, came off the bench in the second minute of added time to secure a winning start for Sarina Wiegman's side in Group E.

The Dutch controlled the possession and had more attempts on goal but were frustrated for long spells in Le Havre, while New Zealand, without a win in its 13 World Cup finals matches, hit the woodwork early on and saw Sarah Gregorius go close.

The result puts Netherlands level on three points with Canada, who beat Cameroon on Monday.

Olivia Chance gave Netherlands a scare 11 minutes in when she rattled the crossbar with a strike from the edge of the box.

The Dutch soon took charge of proceedings, with Lieke Martens at the heart of their attacking efforts, but the Barcelona star failed to make the most of a headed opportunity from close range.

The best chance of the half fell in stoppage time to Dominique Bloodworth, who sliced a rebound wide of the target with the goal gaping after Erin Nayler failed to deal with a cross.

Gregorius was denied by Sari van Veenendaal after skewing a volley goalwards from Betsy Hassett's cross, before Martens fired over and Vivianne Miedema was thwarted at the near post by Nayler.

Netherlands made all the late attacking inroads and Tom Sermanni's side were at last undone with barely 90 seconds remaining, when Roord, who only replaced Jackie Groenen in the 76th minute, headed the ball beyond Nayler from inside the six-yard box after Lineth Beerensteyn had forced it back across goal.

Joe Wright

Joe Wright Photo

Joe is a Senior Editor at Sporting News. He was previously a sub editor and writer for Goal.com before spending six years as part of the Stats Perform editorial news service, covering major global sports including football, tennis, boxing, NBA, rugby union and athletics. Joe has reported live on some of the biggest games in football, including two UEFA Champions League finals, Euro 2016, the Confederations Cup 2017 and the 2018 World Cup final at the end of a month in Russia.