Japan 3-1 Norway: Red-hot Miyazawa nets fifth goal of tournament

Japan sealed their place in the quarter-finals of the Women’s World Cup with a 3-1 win over Norway in Wellington.

Ingrid Engen’s own goal opened the scoring for Japan but they conceded their first goal of the tournament minutes later when Norway responded with their first meaningful attack of the game through Guro Reiten.

Japan proved to be too strong for Norway in the second half and Risa Shimizu put them back in front before Hinata Miyazawa scored her fifth goal of the tournament to seal victory as Norway crashed out of the competition, while Japan go on to face either Sweden or United States.

Japan hit the front quarter of an hour into the contest in rather fortunate fashion as Miyazawa’s floated ball into the area was poked into her own goal by Engen.

They were close to a second almost straight away when Mina Tanaka took advantage of more sloppy Norway passing but her shot was blocked before Norway managed to scramble away.

However, out of nowhere the Norwegians bit back five minutes later when their first real attack of the game resulted in Vilde Boe Risa’s cross being powerfully headed home by Chelsea’s Reiten.

The 2011 world champions regained their lead five minutes after the break after Risa lazily gifted possession away to Shimizu inside her own box, with the latter’s effort from inside the area deflecting past Aurora Mikalsen and into the back of the net.

Norway needed to make more of an impression on the game and they started to do that when Ada Hegerberg came off the bench.

They came close to an equaliser when Graham Hansen picked out Karina Saevik inside the area but she dragged her effort wide of the far post.

Moments later, they had another chance but Frida Maanum’s shot from 20 yards went straight into the gloves of Ayaka Yamashita.

With 81 minutes on the clock, Japan sealed their place in the last eight when Miyazawa latched onto a long ball from Aoba Fujino and slotted past Mikalsen to put them 3-1 up.

As five minutes of additional time were shown, Norway came close to a consolation but Saevik’s goalbound header was magnificently stopped by Yamashita to stop any chance of a grandstand finish.