Portugal earned a message of congratulations from their president after scoring their first win in Women's World Cup finals football with a 2-0 victory over fellow tournament debutants Vietnam in Hamilton, New Zealand.
Ranked 21st in the world, 11 places above Vietnam, Portugal completely dominated the game but wasteful finishing and heroic goalkeeping from Kim Thanh Tran kept the margin down.
Goals to Telma Encarnacao and Kika Nazareth in the seventh and 21st minutes respectively gave Portugal control and set up a deserved win, which was hailed by the nation’s leader Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
“Thank you to the president for his kind words, he’s always sending messages and (he’s a) big supporter,” Portugal coach Francisco Neto said.
.“I dedicate this victory to all the (Portugal) players past and present.”
The win lifted Portugal to three points, one behind group pacesetters, the United States and the Netherlands, who drew 1-1 earlier on Thursday.
Portugal face the daunting task of beating defending champions the US in Auckland on Monday in the final round of Group E matches to advance into the last 16.
The skills of Nazareth, Jessica Silva and Encarnacao caused Vietnam plenty of problems.
Portugal had 27 shots to nine but only five on target, with Neto happy with the amount of chances created but unhappy with the conversion rate.
“Today our finishers, maybe there was a last-minute decision or a technical difficulty to finish, and this is what we’re going to work on,” Neto said.
Silva and Nazareth each missed a good chance before Portugal hit the front with their first World Cup finals goal.
A fine Lucia Alves cross was beautifully met in the middle by player of the match Encarnacao, who gave the goalkeeper no chance with her crisp and classy finish.
Vietnam, who didn’t have a single shot in their opening loss to the US, had an early sight of goal inside the first two minutes and a couple of attempts late in the half but otherwise rarely looked like scoring their first World Cup finals goal.
Portugal spurned three more good opportunities before doubling their lead with Encarnacao turning provider.
Her through ball was pounced on by Nazareth, who raced forward and clinically slotted the ball past Tran.
The Vietnamese shot stopper made a smart double save from Encarnacao to deny Portugal a third goal before the break.
The second half was even more one-sided with Joana Marchao twice hitting the woodwork and numerous other chances either spurned or denied by Tran.
“We couldn’t do what we wanted and the opponent was much stronger than us,” Vietnam coach Chung Duc Mai said.
“They did better than us and we should haver defended better.”
Vietnam finish their campaign against the Netherlands in Dunedin on Tuesday.
