Australia head coach Joe Montemurro felt his side “didn’t get a chance to even affect any part of our game plan” in a 3-0 defeat to England.
Alanna Kennedy was sent off in the 19th minute for pulling back Alessia Russo on the edge of Australia’s penalty area, with Aggie Beever-Jones scoring the rebound from her resulting free-kick.
Lucy Bronze and Georgia Stanway both found the net, whilst the Matildas could muster just one shot on target during the 3-0 defeat to the European Champions.
“We didn’t start well, England were pressing higher and were more proactive in the defensive phase and we didn’t get into any rhythm,” Montemurro reflected. “The game changed with the 10 players.”
Asked about the decision to send off Kennedy, Montemurro said “I can’t comment about referees and things like that. It looked interesting because we did feel there was a player running very very close behind Alanna. I don’t know the exact interpretation of the rules.”
International break has allowed Matildas to ‘stabalise the group’ says Joe Montemurro
The Matildas were based in the UK for the entirety of their October camp, beating Wales 2-1 on Saturday in Cardiff before their loss to England. Montemurro reflected on playing an entire camp away from Australia: “Well, it’s obviously worth it because we’ve got a lot of players based in Europe.
“But it’s been good because we’ve been able to just stabilise a core group. The core group has come together and it’s been great to work with them, it’s the first time I’ve worked with some of the players. We did a fair bit of work in terms of just making sure we have some base ideas that we’re going to take with us for the whole journey into the Asian Cup.
“It was great. We found the challenges that we needed- Wales are a good side. We started off with that one and made five changes tonight against England, they’re a World Class side. It gave us all the information that we needed to build from. We walked away disappointed but there is still belief in this group.”
