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Women's World Cup: Jill Roord snatches stoppage-time win for Netherlands against New Zealand

Netherlands had more of the ball and the greater number of shots and eventually broke through against a resilient New Zealand side.

Published : Jun 11, 2019 20:44 IST

Jill Roord's winner for Netherlands was only her fourth goal for the national side, and her first since she scored a brace against Romania in January 2017, 872 days ago.
Jill Roord's winner for Netherlands was only her fourth goal for the national side, and her first since she scored a brace against Romania in January 2017, 872 days ago.
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Jill Roord's winner for Netherlands was only her fourth goal for the national side, and her first since she scored a brace against Romania in January 2017, 872 days ago.

Netherlands snatched a 1-0 victory over New Zealand in its opening Women's World Cup match on Tuesday thanks to Jill Roord's stoppage-time header.

The 22-year-old, who signed for Arsenal from Bayern Munich last month, came off the bench nodded home in the second minute of added time to secure a winning start for Sarina Wiegman's side in Group E.

The Dutch controlled the possession and had more attempts on goal but were frustrated for long spells in Le Havre, while New Zealand, without a win in their 13 World Cup finals matches, hit the woodwork early on and saw Sarah Gregorius go close.

READ | New Zealand 0-1 Netherlands: As it happened

The result puts Netherlands level on three points with Canada, who beat Cameroon on Monday.

Olivia Chance gave Netherlands a scare 11 minutes in when she rattled the crossbar with a strike from the edge of the box.

The Dutch soon took charge of proceedings, with Lieke Martens at the heart of their attacking efforts, but the Barcelona star failed to make the most of a headed opportunity from close range.

The best chance of the half fell in stoppage time to Dominique Bloodworth, who sliced a rebound wide of the target with the goal gaping after Erin Nayler failed to deal with a cross.

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Gregorius was denied by Sari van Veenendaal after skewing a volley goalwards from Betsy Hassett's cross, before Martens fired over and Vivianne Miedema was thwarted at the near post by Nayler.

Netherlands made all the late attacking inroads and Tom Sermanni's side were at last undone with barely 90 seconds remaining, when Roord, who only replaced Jackie Groenen in the 76th minute, headed the ball beyond Nayler from inside the six-yard box after Shanice van de Sanden had forced it back across goal.

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