Another dance with the Danes brings Matildas’ World Cup journey full circle

Ten months ago, the Matildas and coach Tony Gustavsson were staring down the barrel of another disappointing defeat. Forty-five seconds into their friendly clash with Denmark in Viborg, Karen Holmgaard strolled into the box, positioned herself between three unaware Australian defenders and swept home a simple grounded cross from the right.

It was all too easy, and the knives were out for Gustavsson – for neither the first nor last time.

What came next – and everything that’s happened since – will fuel the Matildas’ fervent belief that they can get past Monday night’s round-of-16 showdown in Sydney against the same opponents and give this home World Cup a real shake.

This was the start of the turnaround in results and form that renewed faith in the Matildas, the run of nine wins from 10 games that made people believe again after two troublesome years under Gustavsson.

Coming off a pair of defeats at home to Canada the month before, they had boosted their confidence three days prior with a routine 4-1 triumph over South Africa – yet after conceding in the very first minute to the Danes, who fielded an experimental line-up with star midfielder Pernille Harder on the bench, it dropped straight back down.

But the Matildas went on to stage a remarkable comeback, scoring three times within nine second-half minutes to prevail 3-1 and notch their first victory against a European team in four years.

Caitlin Foord scored twice against Denmark in a memorable Matildas comeback last October.Credit: Getty

Caitlin Foord scored twice. Gustavsson had moved the Arsenal star into a new central role from her usual spot on the left, and it paid immediate dividends.

“Tony wanted to change something at half-time, he just put me in as the [number] 10. I don’t mind a new challenge,” Foord said. “I just did what I thought in that game, and I guess it kind of worked.”

The Matildas retained that same look all the way through until this week, when Foord reverted back to the flank and helped demolish Canada 4-0 to secure top spot in Group B.

They now face world No.13 Denmark, who finished second in Group D after beating Haiti in Perth on Tuesday night to reach the tournament’s knockout phase for the first time in 28 years.

Denmark’s Pernille Harder celebrates after scoring against Haiti in Perth on Tuesday.Credit: Getty

These two teams know each other very well, and play a similar style. They also faced off in 2021, with Denmark prevailing 3-2 in one of Gustavsson’s first matches in charge of the Matildas, who have improved vastly since.

Many players in both squads play in the same leagues, sometimes for the same clubs; until a couple of months ago, Harder was a teammate of Sam Kerr at Chelsea.

“I’ve been lucky to play with her for three years,” said Harder, who transferred to Bayern Munich in June. “She’s an amazing player, amazing person. I’m looking forward to seeing her, but not to play against her. She’s a great striker, she knows where the goal is, and she has some unbelievable skills with her header.”

Denmark coach Lars Sondergaard described Kerr as the world’s best striker – and while he’s unsure if she will be fit to play, he said his players know exactly how to deal with her from their experiences in those two recent friendlies.

He also labelled Australia’s performance against Canada as “perfect”, but hinted that he could still see vulnerabilities in their play, and warned of how a home crowd can quickly turn against them.

“You have to be aware of what they can do,” Sondergaard said.

“But still, that game against Nigeria – I watched it in the fan zone in Sydney, and they had the most chances, they had the ball the most. Of course, they made some errors at the back, perhaps because they were nervous because they didn’t score the goals.

“They have a good team ... the whole nation is standing behind them, and I think that’s important for them. It could also be pressure, when the game goes into the second half, and it’s still 0-0, and everything can happen.”

Harder joked that her way of dealing with a capacity crowd at Stadium Australia was to simply pretend they were cheering for Denmark, who have not played in a Women’s World Cup since 2007.

“It’s [such a] long time since we came here – first of all, that we qualified for the World Cup, but now we are playing the round of 16,” she said.

“It’s big for us, and that’s why I’m so proud of the whole team. But of course, we are also hungry for more. Now we’re here, we want to win, we want to do everything we can. How [far] it will take us, we don’t know – we will see. What I know is that we will give everything on the pitch.”

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