dominant germany advance despite thailand resistance (fifa.com) 15 jun 2015
germany reached the round of 16 with relative ease after a low key first half, beating thailand 4-0 to claim top spot in group b at the fifa women’s world cup canada 2015™.
the europeans were quick to attack thailand’s goal, and if it was not for the heroics of goalkeeper waraporn boonsing, siliva neid’s side could have run away with the game from the early stages. melanie behringer took an early shot to test boonsing, but she safely parried the ball away, and defender natthakarn chinwong headed the subsequent corner kick off the line to keep it scoreless.
thailand nearly broke free at the other end 20 minutes in. kanjana sung-ngoen capitalised on a rare mistake from the german backline and the no21 raced towards goal with a quick counter-attack but she slowed down and was only able to force a corner kick, which did not result in much for the war elephants.
melanie leupolz broke the deadlock four minutes later with a looping header off a corner kick, which snuck past a thai defender on the far post to give germany the lead. but thailand remained resolute in their defending and boonsing made save after save, including denying celia sasic twice just before the break to send nuengrutai srathongvian’s team into half-time still very much in the match.
however, the floodgates opened for germany ten minutes after half-time as lena petermann made it 2-0 and then 3-0 in a space of two minutes, both goals coming from the substitute’s head. sara daebritz finished the scoring with an easy tap in after she was left unmarked by the thai defence on the back post.
