• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

Group D supremacy on the line as Brazil meets Norway

Jul 2, 2011 - 11:30 PM Wolfsburg, Germany (Sports Network) - Brazil and Norway both had to work harder than expected to come away with wins from their opening match in Group D, and the two sides will meet up at the Volkswagen Arena on Sunday with the top spot in the group on the line.

According to Brazil midfielder Rosana, the 1-0 win over Australia was always expected to be difficult, but it was the team's spirit which carried it through.

"We knew it was going to be a tricky game but Brazil showed their fighting spirit and that's why we won," said Rosana, who scored the lone goal in the game with the Matildas. "The team fought really hard and that helped us impose ourselves."

Brazil overcame a sluggish first half to get all three points, but coach Kleiton Lima will be hoping for more from all-world striker Marta, who had an uncharacteristically quiet match.

Norway waited until the 84th minute to score its lone goal against Equatorial Guinea, with Emilie Haavi finding the net for coach Eli Landsem's team.

Getting a win is the most important thing for Norway, which will be expecting to advance to the quarterfinals from the group. But Landsem was a bit concerned about winning by such a small margin.

"We wasted opportunities during the match but we also had some bad luck," Landsem said. "It was an important win as it was our first match, although we would have liked more goals."

The bad luck that Landsem speaks of is the fact that Norway struck the post three times during the game, which could make the final score deceiving.

"Sometimes football is all about luck, we had many chances," said forward Leni Larsen Kaurin, who assisted on the lone goal, "but it was hard to score. The direction was missing sometimes but we are satisfied."