Where are we at?

The Football Ferns are desperate to make up for their performance on Friday night, which saw them go down 5-0 to World Cup hopefuls Portugal at Waikato Stadium. But there’s been little time to dwell on that result, with the two-day turnaround between games meaning that focus has immediately switched to preparing for tonight’s encounter with Argentina.

Word from Jitka Klimková:

“Our aggressive press and our first touches need to be better, our passes need to be better. And the connection, our combination play, were all things that we already done before but were missing [on Friday night].

“We know we can put the pressure on the ball much better, quicker, more aggressive, more physical. That's what was missing against Portugal: we just let them have the ball without really being pressed, and that's not what we want.

“We are a team who is physical, who is gritty, who is defending for each other, and that's what was missing.”

Word from Hannah Wilkinson:

“It was good to get out there and really have a strong, good training [yesterday].

“It was a good way to kind of bounce back after that game and we know how much better we can be.

“Every single one of us know it was an inexcusable performance. It was just really bad. We know that we are just so much better than that. [We had] a good long day of reflecting, and we're coming into this next game fired up and knowing what we can bring, and that it's going to be a hundred percent better than that.

“We said that we were treating this as a kind of rehearsal for World Cup, so it means that we have to win. You know, we knew we had to win every single game, but right now we're sitting on a loss. And we have to win, we have no choice. So that's the accountability, that's the responsibility we have, and we're going in there knowing that we have to get the result.”

How have Argentina been doing?

The FIFA world-ranked 29 team arrived in Aotearoa meaning business, dispatching World Cup hopefuls Chile 4-0 at North Harbour Stadium in Friday evening’s other friendly. That’s been their best result since  beating Paraguay to finish third at the CONMEBOL Copa America Femenina and secure their place at this year’s World Cup back in July, with losses to Canada and Spain (2-0 and 7-0 respectively) and a draw against Poland wrapping up their 2022 results.

Get tickets for tonight’s game here

Coverage starts at 6.50pm live on Sky Sport

Article added: Monday 20 February 2023