It is a special experience – Miedema delighted to break Netherlands scoring record

Arsenal ace Vivianne Miedema talked up her feat of becoming Netherlands' record scorer after adding two more to her tally on Saturday.

Published : Jun 16, 2019 03:33 IST , Valenciennes (France)

Vivianne Miedema of Netherlands will savour her goals from the game against Cameroon in the FIFA Women's World Cup.
Vivianne Miedema of Netherlands will savour her goals from the game against Cameroon in the FIFA Women's World Cup.
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Vivianne Miedema of Netherlands will savour her goals from the game against Cameroon in the FIFA Women's World Cup.

Vivianne Miedema hailed the "special experience" of becoming Netherlands' all-time record goalscorer after netting a brace to send her side through to the last 16 of the Women's World Cup.

European champion Netherlands followed up its 1-0 win over New Zealand with a 3-1 victory against Cameroon in Valenciennes on Saturday, with Miedema scoring in both halves.

The Arsenal forward powered a diving header past Annette Ngo Ndom 41 minutes in and fired home a second five minutes from time to seal a place in the knockout phase with a game to spare.

READ | Women's World Cup: Results and Standings

The brace took the 22-year-old to 60 goals for her country, overtaking Manon Melis, and she was delighted to make history.

"It will not be celebrated in a big way, but it will be talked about. It is something special, something I'm only going to live once and it's a special experience for me," she is quoted as saying by FIFA's official website. 

"It's a World Cup – you score a goal, so I think you can cheer and be a little crazy about it. It's a special moment."

READ | Miedema breaks record as European champion progresses

Netherlands was level at half-time in its second Group E match after Gabrielle Onguene cancelled out Miedema's opener, but Dominique Bloodworth struck early in the second half and Miedema rounded off the scoring late on.

And boss Sarina Wiegman admits her side, crowned continental champions two years ago, was far from its best for the second match running.

"I'm glad we won. In a couple of stages we played better than the previous game but we struggled as well," she said. "We started out really well, we had a couple of breakthroughs on the right but the pass never came.

READ | Netherlands vs Cameroon, as it happened

"Towards the end of the first half, we got a little messy and lost the ball very often. We scored before half-time and you want to build on that, but suddenly it's 1-1. Thankfully we scored again after half-time and that was nice."

Cameroon's failure to hold on in the second half leaves it facing an early exit from the competition, as it has zero points from its first two matches and takes on New Zealand in its final group game on Thursday.

"I think we did what we could," said Cameroon boss Alain Djeumfa. "I am satisfied. We have one game left and we're going to bet on doing our best in this game."

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