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Australia fought back 2-0 to beat Brazil in an extraordinary five-goal thriller and inflict a first group-stage loss to the South Americans in 24 years.
The Matildas suffered a surprise defeat by Italy in their opening match and their campaign was seriously threatened by a Marta penalty and Cristiane's fourth strike in two games.
But the Matildas equalized after Caitlin Foord and Chloe Logarzo's stinging finish, but Marta had to pull out of the match to score 16 goals in the World Cup.
The unfortunate goal of defender Monica – who was ultimately awarded to the VAR, with an offside Sam Kerr deemed controversial as having not interfered – completed Australia's remarkable comeback.
The Australians, ranked sixth in the world, are now tied with Brazil and the Italians with three points in Group C, before Jamaica and Italy meet for their second game in Reims Friday, in the most balanced group of the tournament.
Brazil, who beat Jamaica for the last time thanks to Cristiane's memorable hat trick, has not lost a live group match in the final since 1995.
And the 2007 finalists seemed to be fully in control of Thursday 's thriller in Montpellier when they came to a halt in the first half, before Foord' s point blank finish gave Australia hope.
Marta continues to score the story despite the defeat
Marta, who missed the first match of Brazil because of an injury, arrived in France with a one-goal lead in the Women's World Cup standings against former German star Birgit Prinz and the former -Americaine Abby Wambach, both retired with 14 goals in the final.
The 16th star of the Orlando Pride has seen it become Brazil's top scorer in the senior World Cup, overtaking that of the former iconic Real Madrid striker, Ronaldo, while getting closer to the world. German Miroslav Klose at the top of the standings.
She was coldly converted from the spot after Australia's Elise Kellond-Knight brought Leticia Santos back into the box, before Cristiane's comeback force was 2-0.
At this point, the Brazilians were almost unrecognizable from the disappointing team that finished last year's SheBelieves Invitational Cup in the United States in March.
The Australian spirit keeps hope
Facing a second defeat in two games, Australia was apparently about to be eliminated from a tournament in which they hoped to win.
Some of their players seemed to show anger and frustration to each other after conceding second goal, but they rallied with challenge – under the impulse of a busy crowd – and showed their determination to stay in the competition.
Kerr's attempts at defense posed big problems for the Brazilian defense. She played a part in their two goals in the second half.
She attacked the penalty area when the center of Logarzo bounced towards the goal and, although she did not touch it, her intention was sufficient to distract the goalkeeper.
VAR again has a say
Moments before falling behind, Australia wanted a penalty, after Tameka Yallop was eliminated by Thaisa, but after studying VAR, it became clear that Yallop's hand had touched the ball a few seconds earlier.
And the VAR drama continued with the decisive goal of the match, a long and dangerous forward attack – targeting Kerr's captain Kerr – left Monica's head and fell to the back of the net, but the officials felt that the role of Kerr was not enough to cancel the goal, even though Monica was trying to follow Kerr's run.
Nevertheless, the Australians – who have serious ambitions to go beyond the quarterfinals of this competition for the first time this summer – are to be commended for their fighting spirit as they perform. a controversial but terribly entertaining return.
"I hope this brings Australia together" – what they said
Australian coach Ante Milicic: "Tonight is one of the best Australian performances I have ever seen, the players deserve all the awards they've been given, and they've never stopped believing. country.
"As the game progressed, we looked very strong, physically we are in very good condition, the recovery will be important for us and we will then move to the Jamaica match."
Australian midfielder Chloe Logarzo: "The Australian mentality is to be able to swing when our back is against the wall, we finally found our calm, kept the ball on the ground and connected our pbades."
Brazilian striker Marta: "It was supposed to be a very competitive match, and that's what we had.We came here to win and get to the next stage.Now there is no point in deploring the We are still fighting for our place and we should focus on that. "
The other scorer of Brazil, Cristiane: "The plan was to wait for them, looking for markers, but we had a blackout and stupid goals that, frankly, can not happen."
Matildas mounts a rare fight – stats
- Australia is only the second team in the history of the Women's World Cup to win a game with at least two goals behind Sweden defeated Germany 3-2 in 1995.
- Brazil conceded more goals in this match than in their last 13 group matches of the combined Women's World Cup (two).
- Monica's goal was only Brazil's second goal at the Women's World Cup after Daiane defeated the United States in 2011.
- Chloe Logarzo became the first Australian player to score and attend a Women's World Cup match since Leena Khamis against Equatorial Guinea in 2011.
- Marta became the first player to score in five different editions of the Women's World Cup, scoring in 2019, 2015, 2011, 2007 and 2003.
And then in group C?
Jamaica and Italy will play their second match in Reims on Friday (5 pm BST). Italy will then face Brazil in Valenciennes on Tuesday 18 June, at the same time as Jamaica will face Australia in Grenoble (20h00 BST).
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