Today history will be made once again for the Ford Football Ferns as they take to the pitch at Eden Park for the first time ever. The Ferns will open the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023 there when they play the tournament's opening game on 20 July.

After a record-breaking 12,508 fans descended upon Wellington’s Sky Stadium, the Ferns are looking forward to seeing Auckland similarly turn out in force, says forward Gabi Rennie:

“We need everybody there we can get because, you know, the fans are just as helpful as everything else on the day. We're very, very excited to be out there and compete again, I think the girls are recharged and ready to go, so I hope everybody else is too and the fans can get out there and support us!”

While happy with how the team rose to the challenge of taking on the world number one on Wednesday, looking ahead to today’s game one of the Ferns’ aims is to create more opportunities in attack, says head coach Jitka Klimková.

“If we win the ball a little bit higher on the field, we can create chances from our attacking transition,” she says.

“We have players like Gabi, we have players who are very quick who can exploit the back four of USA or of any team. So that's something where we believe we can create more chances, and we can be a little bit more efficient with our countering and with our attacking transition.”

Squad news:

Ferns Betsy Hassett, Indiah-Paige Riley and Wednesday debutant Grace Neville have all returned to their club sides following the first game of the series, as has the USA’s Lindsey Horan.

Book tickets here to watch the game live from $5 at Eden Park 

Watch live on Sky Sport NZ

Article added: Saturday 21 January 2023