Falcons too good on counter, admits Australia’s Catley

<p>Australian defender, Stephanie Catley, has heaped plaudits on the Super Falcons team’s style of play in the wake of their remarkable 3-2 win over The Matildas on Thursday, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.</p>, <p>Catley, who led the Aussies in the absence of influential captain Sam Kerr, admitted that the nine-time African champions were devastating with their counter-attacks.</p>, <p>According to the game’s statistics, Australia had 26 attempts on goal to Nigeria’s 11 but could only muster one more attempt —seven to Nigeria’s six — that was actually on target.</p>, <p>The Matildas also got 15 corners to Nigeria’s two, but both sides mustered one goal each from those set-piece opportunities.</p>, <p>“Obviously extremely disappointed,” Catley said after the game. “I think this was a massive opportunity for us that we obviously let slide, but it’s tournament football, and this sort of thing happens.</p>, <p>“We’ve just got to move on as quickly as possible – on to Canada now. This is what World Cups are all about.</p>, <p>“It was definitely not our best performance. We created a lot of opportunities that we potentially could have finished – I haven’t seen the statistics, but I assume we had a fair few shots. If some of those go in, maybe it’s a different story, but they (Nigeria) were great on the counter, and they finished their chances.”</p>, <p>Australia must beat Olympic champions Canada in Melbourne next Monday to advance to the next round of the competition.</p>