The statistics listed 18 missed chances by the Matildas against Chile on Saturday afternoon but the biggest opportunity that went begging won't be known in detail for days to come.
A wasteful performance from Australia in their 3-2 loss to the South American nation ranked 33 places below them has jeopardised the Matildas' hopes of being one of the six top-seeded nations for the 2019 World Cup group stage draw. As coach Alen Stajcic describes it, they only have themselves to blame.
Against the run of play: Francisca Lara scores for Chile against Australia at Panthers Stadium.Credit:AAP
Having commanding so much of the match only to leave empty-handed was particularly galling for Australia, who must now rely on other results going their way to avoid dropping further down from their current sixth spot on the rankings.
They will be hoping England avoid slipping up against Sweden this weekend, Switzerland qualify at the expense of the Netherlands this coming week and Norway beat Japan in their upcoming friendly.
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"Thats out of our hands now. That will be tough now," Stajcic said.
The Matildas coach made no secret of his disappointment with the loss in front of a vocal crowd of more than 15,000 at Penrith, having wasted so many opportunities to score while handing Chile three goals from their only three clear-cut attempts on goal.
"I think this is a fairly decent bump in the road for our team," he said.
Two defensive errors gifted Chile their first two goals before a lapse in transition led to the eventual winner minutes before full-time.
"They had three chances in the game and scored three. Its a little bit disappointing because we gifted them two of those, probably the third one as well but thats international football," Stajcic said.
"If you look at the other side of the pitch, we created enough to get into good goal-scoring positions, either the cutback or the shot. The clinical element that was required a few times probably went missing."
Insult to injury: Yesenia Huenteo races off after adding to the Matildas' woes.Credit:AAP
Chile celebrated wildly with their first win against a top-six nation as their rapid rise in women's football continues ahead of the 2019 World Cup in France next June. Chile coach Jose Letelier admitted he had been coy on his chances against Australia before the match but hailed his team's brave performance as their new standard in international football.
"For women's football in Chile, its very significant. We have qualified for the first time ever for a World Cup," he said. "We are playing in the big stage now so for us its huge. The important thing is we can keep to this level and that is not something thats going to be just a period of time but we can keep all these kind of games."
Dominic Bossi is a football reporter with The Sydney Morning Herald.
