Japan advanced to the last eight after winning the fight between two former champions.

Japan advanced to the last eight after winning the fight between two former champions.


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Both teams are former world champions. Japan 2011, Norway 1995. In the latest FIFA rankings, the two teams are side by side—11 and 12. However, although the past success and the current strength are close together, the result of the FIFA Women's World Cup last sixteen face-to-face has been one-sided.

The winner of tomorrow's USA-Sweden match will face Japan. In the other match of the last sixteen today, Spain beat Switzerland women 5-1. They will play the winners of tomorrow's Netherlands-South Africa match in the last eight.

Japan went into the match at the Wellington Regional Stadium as favourites. The Asian country not only won all three matches of the group stage, but scored 11 goals in the opponent's net and reached the last sixteen without conceding a single goal.

In contrast, Norway was shaky in the group stage. A goalless draw with Switzerland after losing to hosts New Zealand in the opening match. However, in the last match of the 'A' group, they beat the Philippines 6-0 and reached the knockout stage as the group runners-up. However, in the 2019 tournament, Norway was optimistic against Japan in the quarter-final game. Japan was the champion in 2011 and runner-up in 2015 but stopped in the last sixteen in the last tournament.


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The first goal after the start of the match came but from the players of Norway. But the goal post was wrong. Ingrid Engen's own goal in the 15th minute gave Japan the lead with an own goal. After 5 minutes, the ball went into Japan's net, this time Guro Reiten scored for Norway. The scoreline of the match till the first half was 1-1.

However, Risa Shimizu led Japan at the beginning of the second half. From then on, Japan began to focus on keeping its net intact. On the other hand, most of Norway's players began to attack after repeatedly conceding goals. And in response to such an attack in the 81st minute, Hinata Miwaza got Japan's third goal by entering the Norwegian defense with a great finish. In the end, the girls of Japan left the field with the victory.


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Japan also avenged an old loss by defeating Norway on the way to the quarter-finals. The Asian side lost 4–0 to Norway in the group stage of the 1999 World Cup. Risi, who scored the first goal for Norway that day, was in the team's dugout today.