Although the official Opening Ceremony hasn’t taken place yet, the Women’s football kicked off on Wednesday and hosts Brazil gave the home crowd a lot to cheer about with their 3-0 win over China.
Canada v Australia (Photo: Alexandra Schneider/Getty Images Rio 2016)
Canada got their Olympic campaign off to a great start with a convincing win over Australia. They also made Olympic history when Janine Beckie scored their first goal after just 19 seconds. It was a game that featured almost everything with the Australian team losing a player to a red card and Beckie also missing a second half penalty but the Maple Leafs went on to win 2-0.
It will be interesting to see how the Matildas bounce back from this loss when they face Germany on Saturday, while the German team will be full of confidence after a dominant performance against Zimbabwe, where they found the back of the net six times to run out 6-1 winners.
Tournament favourites USA beat New Zealand 2-0 and France overwhelmed Colombia with a 4-0 win. While South Africa will have it all to do on Saturday after a 1-0 loss to Sweden.
[It is incredibly sad that the GB team don’t feature in this competition and it seems almost inexplicable when other codes have found an easy solution to the dilemma faced by home nations that the various FAs cannot come to a similar agreement. Of course its no skin off the noses of the men in blazers but the hard-working footballers, for whom this could have been the pinnacle of their career, all lose out. For any athlete to represent their country at the Olympics must be an awesome achievement and to have the possibility taken away by politics is shameful.]
Details of the Pools, fixtures and results are below:
Rio 2016 Olympics – Women’s football
Pool E: Brazil, Sweden, South Africa, China
Pool F: Germany, Canada, Australia, Zimbabwe
Pool G: France, USA, New Zealand, Colombia
Fixtures and Results:
3 August 2016
Group E
Brazil Women 3-0 China Women
Sweden Women 1-0 South Africa Women
Group F
Canada Women 2-0 Australia Women
Zimbabwe Women 1-6 Germany Women
Group G
USA Women 2-0 New Zealand Women
France Women 4-0 Colombia Women
Saturday 6th August 2016
Group E
South Africa Women 0-2 China Women
Group F
Canada Women 3-1 Zimbabwe Women
Germany Women 2-2 Australia Women
Group G
USA Women 1-0 France Women
Sunday 7th August 2016
Group E
Brazil Women 5-1 Sweden Women 02:00
Group G
Colombia Women 0-1 New Zealand Women
Tuesday 9th August 2016
Group F
Australia Women 6-1 Zimbabwe Women
Germany Women 1-2 Canada Women
Group G
Colombia Women 2-2 USA Women
New Zealand Women 0-3 France Women
Wednesday 10th August 2016
Group E
China Women 0-0 Sweden Women
South Africa Women 0-0 Brazil Women
Women’s Olympic Football – Quarter Finals
Friday 12th August 2016
USA 1-1 Sweden AET – Sweden win on penalties
China PR 0-1 Germany
Canada 1-0 France
Saturday 13th August 2016
Brazil 0-0 Australia AET Brazil win on penalties
Tuesday 16th August 2016
Women’s Olympic Football – Semi-Final
Brazil v Sweden 17:00
Canada v Germany 20:00
Friday 19th August 2016
Women’s Olympic Football – Bronze Medal Match
3rd Place Play Off 2 v 3rd Place Play Off 1 17:00
Women’s Olympic Football – Gold Medal Match
Finalist 2 v Finalist 1 21:30
