‘Very disappointing’: Matildas break down shock loss to Italy

The Matildas dominated possession and shots at goal but couldn’t turn that into points against Italy in the World Cup opener. Coach Ante Milicic looks at where it all went wrong.

• Matildas stunned by injury time Italy winner

Shell-shocked Matildas coach Ante Milicic has rued defensive errors and a failure to capitalise on their dominance for their 2-1 Women’s World Cup-opening defeat to Italy.

Australia couldn’t turn two-thirds of possession and 16 shots to six into three points in Valenciennes on Sunday, leaving them behind the eight ball just to progress as one of the top two teams in a group also featuring Brazil and Jamaica.

Juventus star Barbara Bonansea headed home her second goal in the 95th minute to give Le Azzurre a win in their first match back on the big stage for 20 years.

Barbara Bonansea of Italy scores the winning goal against the Matildas. Picture: Getty Images

“I thought we created enough chances to win the game, we dominated enough possession but I think at the crucial times we didn’t capitalise on that,” Milicic said.

“At times we gave the ball away too easily. When we played our football we looked decent, but it was only in patches.

“We need to be a little bit more brave and composed on the ball. Unfortunately we got undone by a build-up scenario where our shape probably was not what it needed to be.

“To concede that was disappointing, but to lose a game from a set piece in stoppage time, it’s an area we have worked on a lot but it looks like you can never work enough on it. Very disappointing.”

Australia appeared ready to open the floodgates after Sam Kerr drew a penalty then scored her first World Cup goal on the rebound after Italy goalkeeper Laura Giuliani saved her spot-kick.

Italian players throw Barbara Bonansea in the air in celebration of the win. Picture: Getty Images

“We tried to change things a bit, we moved Sammy to the right and I thought she got in behind quite well a couple of times, but at the same time when you take her out into those wide areas you lose her aerial threat in the centre,” Milicic said.

“We created enough chances to score more than one, and on another day maybe a few would have gone in. But full credit to Italy, they came with a game plan and they got the result in the correct manner.

Australia’s task wasn’t helped by Italy’s expert use of niggly, tactical fouls to slow the game down and break their opponents’ rhythm.

“We expected that,” Milicic said.

Australia's forward Lisa De Vanna vies with Italy's midfielder Manuela Giugliano: Picture: AFP

“We played the Netherlands last week in a friendly and the ball was in play for 43 minutes, and today we expected very much a stop-start game.

“We spoke about that as a group and we tried to get a little bit of assistance from the fourth official and the ball boys.

“We want to play a fast-tempo game and it took the rhythm out of it, but again we need to overcome that. Teams are going to do that a lot more to us.

“I still feel that we could have done things a little bit better when the ball was in play we just needed to make a little bit better decisions because there were options for us. On the day we just didn’t execute as well as we can.”