Key events
Preamble
Martin Pegan
Hello and welcome to live coverage of the first women’s football friendly between Australia and Panama at Hands Oval in Bunbury, Western Australia.
The Matildas make their debut at the venue as they seek to build on a reasonably positive start to coach Joe Montemurro’s tenure after a first-up victory over Slovenia was followed by a draw when the visitors hit a last-gasp equaliser. As often seems to be the way with the beautiful game, Australia’s better performance of the two was widely considered to be in the game that they drew.
Montemurro will get a deeper look at his squad and options for the Women’s Asian Cup on home soil next year with several star names out of action and enjoying a rest elsewhere today. But Hayley Raso is in town and will wear the captain’s armband against the side ranked No 56 in the world.
Panama bring their own strong form into the friendly after a 5-1 win over Bolivia a month ago and a 2-0 victory against the same side a week before that.
Kick-off is at 2.30pm AWST / 4.30pm AEST. I’ll be back soon with the line-ups and team news. In the meantime, get in touch with any questions, thoughts and predictions. You can shoot me an email, or find me on X @martinpegan and Bluesky @martinpegan.bsky.social. Let’s get into it!
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