Women's World Cup: 11 action goals, fantastic victory, semifinal!

The final ideas were slightly rearranged by the last goalkeeper training on Thursday evening, during which Aubéli Tekla's finger was injured - so the quarterfinal had to be played without her, with Rybanska Natasa as the second center.

The match started with one each failed power play, followed by a goal conceded from a small slip, even though we were promisingly hunting the ball at the back. Rybanska's center attempt got stuck in the goalkeeper, then we defended twice brilliantly, and finally, halfway through the quarter, Peresztegi-Nagy Kinga managed to equalize with a fantastic lob.

From the next disadvantage, a five-meter penalty was awarded, Andrews scored for them, but from our power play, Hajdú Kata rather hit the Australian goalkeeper directly, and from the next one, she hit the crossbar. Although the girls defended quite well at the back, Neszmély Boglárka also saved one shot from Andrews towards the end - a bit of precision was missing in the tough battle upfront, but despite the 1-2 score, the first eight minutes didn't look bad.

At the beginning of the second quarter, Hungarian finesse was on display: Leimeter Dóra scored a fantastic lob from near the side post, as the Australian goalkeeper was lingering around the center - then Vályi Vanda's marvelous shot found the short top bar; within 54 seconds, we had already turned the score around. And the series continued, as after a ball recovery, two players reached the Australian half, Rybanska decided to take a free throw from seven meters, and she did it perfectly. However, we couldn't finish everything for Longman, and from a counter, a justified penalty was given once again, which Williams converted - if the ball had reached Vályi a bit faster before the turning Andrews... However, shortly after, it was 4-4, as we softened up again on their attack in the last seconds.

Dömsödi hit the crossbar, then Neszmély made a great save in a man-down situation, and the American referee was willing to finally call a drawn back-hand, of course, also aided by the verbal pressure of coach Cseh Sándor - after a timeout, an advantage was given. Sümegi Nóra smashed it in hard from behind, so we were leading again (5-4) - which remained until halftime, as the defenses closed well.

Garda Krisztina's great defense and huge advantage goal initiated the third part, then it continued with a save by Neszmély and a flick goal by Vályi - finally, the ball came, and Vanda scored. And the magic continued, a great combination play from Baksa Vanda-Dömsödi Dalma came after a successful block, which allowed our center to pass into an empty net... From another block, Vályi carried the ball towards the Australian defense, and she curved it skillfully to the far corner - we couldn't believe our eyes, as we were at 9-4.

Unfortunately, Williams' shot went in, but then Neszmély made a big save, and Rybanska Natasa scored a great goal rushing into the slightly shaky defenders. Unfortunately, Jackovich tucked in the sixth from the center somehow, and then we failed twice to produce organized finishes from our quick counterattacks. An Australian timeout brought them a power play, and although Cseh Sándor announced they wanted to play to number 12, the ball ended up going through (10-7), but our last 10-second man-up play missed due to a misplaced pass; we were still leading by three, yet we felt unsatisfied somehow due to the attacks in the last two minutes.

Then it vanished after Hajdú Kata finally aimed accurately from the first attack - though they immediately scored from a rebounded man-up play. Then came a few possessions, Neszmély couldn't be beaten, and finally, patience led to another power play and another goal by Hajdú, putting us four ahead with four minutes left. However, in the intense grinding, we started to lag, so the difference halved to two with 1:27 remaining thanks to their two quick goals. Just as tension was building up, Garda shot a fabulous big goal at the right moment, sealing the match at 0:58 - as a bonus, an interception led to Vályi also "running away" and scoring her fourth goal, adding a festival-like touch to the finish (there was no doubt she would be chosen as the player of the match).

So it happened that deploying eleven players born after 2000, we scored 11 action goals and ultimately defeated the Olympic silver medalists quite comfortably.

Sándor Cseh, Head Coach

"Today we were very united, I already felt this before the match, and during the game, I felt that we had a psychological advantage over the Australians throughout. Our defense was very good, our goalkeeper excelled, and my clear impression was that we were not necessarily better in terms of gameplay, but in mental factors. Huge congratulations to all the girls, as they are very young and delivered such a serious performance in their first truly significant match. Perhaps there were two things during the whole match that I didn't like to see, we didn't help enough against their left-hander at the beginning, who scored twice, but we solved this very well later, they gave the ball to the post twice in a man-down situation, and that's about it. However, we were able to bring a lot of new aspects, not to mention that our eleventh-twelfth-thirteenth player also performed at the same maximum level as the first-second-third. Today we had more tools and formations in our hands than the Australians - maybe we were more prepared for this, as this was the first real big match of a new era for us today. I am very happy about today's success, but we have to continue to develop."

Women's World Cup, Chengdu

Quarterfinal

Australia-Hungary 10-14 (2-1, 2-4, 3-5, 2-4)

Our Goals: Vályi 4, Garda, Hajdú, Rybanska 2-2, Peresztegi-Nagy, Leimeter, Sümegi, Dömsödi

Results of other matches:

Netherlands-Japan 24-16, Greece-Italy 19-14, Spain-China 15-8

In Saturday's semifinals:

18:30: Netherlands-Greece

20:15: Spain-Hungary (Hungarian time from 14:15)