New Zealand’s initial goals for the World Cup were extremely modest by the standards of a host country: winning a game would be progress. Mission accomplished. Hannah Wilkinson’s goal in the 48th minute proved decisive on Thursday as New Zealand defeated Norway in Auckland in the opening match of the tournament.
“It’s the best night of my life,” the New Zealand captain, Ali Riley, said. “With the performance, we deserved it. I know we came in as underdogs, I know there was a lot of doubt, a lot of articles being written saying how many times we haven’t won a game, but we believed in ourselves the whole time.”
