GROUP A
The European teams progressed as expected but their passage was far from comfortable, especially for Norway who were shocked by an opening-night defeat to New Zealand, the co-hosts’ first World Cup win at the16th attempt.
Hannah Wilkinson topped off a superb move to earn the Kiwis victory in front of 42,137 ecstatic supporters at Auckland’s rugby citadel Eden Park, igniting a nation that had hitherto failed to embrace the tournament.
That should have set the Football Ferns up to make the knockout stages for the first time, but they were then rocked themselves, by the , with Sarina Bolden’s goal giving