The Biggest Bad Beats in the History of Women's Football
The women's game enjoys its fair share of upsets in major tournaments, just like the men's game. Women's football is becoming increasingly competitive on a global scale. There is no better proof of this than the latest pre-tournament odds for the FIFA Women's World Cup this year. The USA, England, Germany, Spain and France are all priced under 10/1 to become world champions this year with Unibet, which now serves football fans in over 100 countries according to oddschecker.
Within this article, we'll be exploring some of the most jaw-dropping bad beats in the modern era of the sport. When we say bad beats, we don't necessarily mean heavy losses. Bad beats is a popular turn of phrase used by poker players to describe a game or hand in which the statistical underdog wins against the favourite who had probability firmly on their side. In any game or sport, the statistics have been known to spit out shock results from time to time. Below, you'll discover five victors of contests in which women's teams had no right of winning on paper.
China 4-0 Norway (1991)
The opening match of the 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup involved hosts China and the mighty Norway. The Norwegians came into the competition as one of the clear favourites for the trophy. However, Guangzhou's Tianhe Stadium was roaring with delight on the opening day as China somehow blitzed Norway 4-0. Two goals from Liu Ailing came either side of Ma Li and Sun Qingmei against the shell-shocked Norwegians. The Scandinavian outfit shrugged off the early disappointment to qualify out of the group and reach the final, where they would lose narrowly to the USA.
Colombia 2-0 France (2015)
Colombia's 2-0 victory over France in the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup is considered by many to be the biggest upset in the history of women's international football. Lady Andrade opened the scoring for the South Americans and didn't look back. It took them a long time to get that all-important second goal, with Catalina Usme eventually striking in second half stoppage time, as the French poured players forward in search of an equaliser. France went into this game as the third-best team in the world, while Colombia had only just broken inside the world's top 30.
North Korea 2-2 USA (2007)
The American women's team should have known that 2007 wasn't going to be their year to lift the World Cup after a dismal opening group stage game against North Korea. Although the bookmakers had USA as overwhelming favourites, the game was by no means a cakewalk. It looked like things were going to the script when Abby Wambach fired the Americans into an early second half lead. However, Kil Son-hui's rapid equaliser turned the contest on its head. The North Koreans went one better by snatching the lead through Kim Yong-ae. The USA weren't used to chasing games and it was by no means easy for them to fight back. Heather O'Reilly eventually plundered an equaliser to spare America's blushes, although all three points was beyond their grasp.
North Korea 3-1 Denmark (1999)
The draw with USA goes down as one of North Korea's finest results, but a 3-1 victory over Denmark is up there as its best. At the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup, North Korea made the trip to the USA, who were this year's hosts. At the time, Denmark weren't quite as strong as their Scandinavian counterparts Norway and Sweden, but they were still expected to stroll past the North Koreans, who had other ideas. The Danes had lost their first group game and went into the North Korea match needed a morale-boosting victory to rebuild. It went horribly wrong for the Danes. They found themselves three goals down before a late consolation from Janni Johansen set up a tense last 15 minutes for the Asians which they ably negotiated.
Brazil 1-0 Sweden (1995)
One might have expected the Brazilian women's national team to be near the top of the world rankings, but it took them several years to make their mark on the sport. In fact, they were considerably underdogs at the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup in Sweden. They were drawn in the same group as host nation Sweden and given very little chance of winning. However, Brazil stunned the Helsingborg crowd into silence, with Roseli de Belo bagging the only goal of the game. Despite that epic victory, the Brazilians would lose their remaining two group games and fail to advance to the knockout stages.