Salisbury hails Matildas achievement

Matildas captain Cheryl Salisbury has described the teams achievement of getting through to the quarter finals of the FIFA Women’s World Cup as a wonderful and is pleased it happened to this group of players.

Matildas captain Cheryl Salisbury has described the teams achievement of getting through to the quarter finals of the FIFA Women-s World Cup as a wonderful and is pleased it happened to this group of players.

Salisbury-s last gasp equaliser in the second minute of injury time, ensured Australia advanced at Canada-s expense, when it looked like Canada has snatched the victory they needed late in the match that would have seen them advance at Australia-s expense.

“It-s absolutely wonderful,” Salisbury said the day after the team-s win. “I mean for me personally; four World Cup finals and we-ve finally made it through to the quarter finals; its been a long wait but certainly worth while and I am glad its happened to this group of players.”

Salisbury-s finish; her 34th goal of her Matildas career, was not the best goal she ever scored, but was certainly was the most memorable.

“It-s certainly the most memorable goal and the one that means the most to me,” she said. “It-s probably not the most spectacular goal I have scored but it has created history now.

“Personally for me it-s a major achievement but most of all though, it-s about getting the team through to the quarter finals.”

Asked about the goal.

“It was definitely aimed at that corner,” she said. “I didn-t hit it as sweetly as I would have liked, but when Lisa picked up the ball on the edge of the box, she is always going to draw two; three or four defenders. She always twists and turns and its incredible what she can do.

“When the ball actually came across, all I could see in front of me; seriously it was like it was in slow motion; all I saw was the keeper and a couple of their players race to the corner that was open. In this split second, I thought I would just put the ball back to where they came from.”

The game looked lost for Australia when Canada scored with seven minutes remaining, but Salisbuiry said the belief within in the team was what got them home.

“There is certainly a great belief amongst the team,” Salisbury said confidently. “I don-t know whether we are fortunate or unfortunate, but we seem to have that ability when we do go down a goal early or in any part of the game that we tend to dig deeper and play even better.

“I am not sure that-s a tactic that Tom wants to use in the next few games, but we do have belief in ourselves and we do know we have the capabilities to score goals.

“When Canada did score to go 2-1 up, I do think a few hearts and heads went down. I said to the girls it only takes a few seconds and a few good passes to score a goal; just keep going and that-s what happened, we didn-t give up and the goal came our way.”

The Matildas quarter final showdown against Brazil on Sunday night at the FIFA Women's World Cup in Tianjin, China, will be broadcast live on SBS from 9.50pm (AEST).