Despite a tragic beginning to the day, the Football Ferns and co-host came out victorious with a goal from Hannah Wilkinson in the opening minutes of the second half.
Before the match, a gunman entered a high-rise building site close to the hotel where the Norwegian team was staying and opened fire, killing two people. A shootout with police ended in the gunman’s death.
Following this, there was a record crowd of 42,137 in attendance at Eden Park Stadium to support the home team. The Prime Minister of New Zealand, Chris Hipkins, was present. After the game, he complimented the squad in the locker room for their motivational play.
A moment of silence was held for the victims of the shooting during an opening ceremony commemorating New Zealand’s Indigenous heritage. A police officer was among the five injured in the incident.
Five previous World Cups had passed without a victory for the New Zealand Football Ferns.
“We really wanted to inspire young girls across the nation and I think we did that tonight. We showed that anything is possible,” said captain Ali Riley, with tears of joy.
Though the Ferns’ defence was solid, Norway failed to capitalise on its first-half opportunities. Ada Hegerberg had a good chance to break the scoreless tie in the 37th minute, but Rebekah Stott made a great save.
Hegerberg, the first woman to win the Ballon d’Or, has scored 43 goals in 77 caps for her national team. She has a record 59 goals in the Champions League, and she is now playing professionally with Lyon. In Auckland, though, she was unable to score.
In contrast, Wilkinson scored right after halftime, thanks to Jaqui Hand’s run up the right flank and pinpoint cross. Aurora Mikalson, the goalkeeper for Norway, stood with her hands on her hips as the home fans erupted in cheers.
In 1995, Norway triumphed at the World Cup. The 2019 squad lost to eventual champions England in the tournament’s quarterfinals. England dominated Norway 8-0 at the 2022 Women’s Euro. Caroline Graham Hansen, a winger for the team, said that the World Cup represented a “fresh start” in the buildup to this match.
“(It’s) the opening game, they are the hosts. We have talked about this. We knew they were going to go out there and be aggressive,” Norway midfielder Guro Reiten said. “We knew exactly how they wanted to play but still, we were so poor, especially in that first half. I’m very disappointed.”
After more than 10 minutes of stoppage time, the referee blew the whistle, and the New Zealand bench stormed the pitch in jubilation. Riley hammered her chest in front of her enthralled audience.
“It’s really hard to put into words, but absolutely surreal,” Ferns defender Katie Bowen said of the droughtbreaking victory. “I mean we made history tonight, but we can’t rest on that. Our goal is to get out of the group.”
Bowen claimed her brother called her early that morning to see if she was all right after hearing about the massacre in Auckland.
Bowen stated, “I think everyone was just pretty taken aback, because this doesn’t really happen in New Zealand.” “But I think, especially on a game day, down to just each individual doing what they needed to do to process it and make sure they could focus on the game at the same time.”
The Norwegians entered the game as heavy contenders in Group A, having outscored New Zealand 5-1-1 in the two teams’ previous six meetings, with New Zealand’s lone victory coming in an exhibition match played in 2019.
Despite the tragedy occurring near their hotel, Norway coach Hege Riise said her players were unaffected.
“We knew it was under control, we felt safe. Some players slept through it,” Riise said. “We had an early morning meeting with everyone. It hasn’t had an effect on how we performed in the game.”
New Zealand had only one victory in their previous eleven matches on home soil leading up to the competition.
In their only previous World Cup meeting in 1991, Norway defeated the Ferns by a score of 4-0.
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