Hannah Wilkinson has already created magical moments for the New Zealand national football team at two World Cups. At the home World Cup, the former Bundesliga striker from MSV Duisburg wants to finally celebrate her first win with the “Football Ferns”.
When the 31-year-old thinks of the World Cup opening game on Thursday (07/20/2023, 9 a.m., in the live stream on sportschau.de) in Eden Park in Auckland against Norway, she gets “goosebumps”, as Wilkinson told the daily newspaper “The New Zealand”. Herald” recently revealed: “I’ve always imagined it. It will be an experience like no other.” For the attacker from the Australian A-League club Melbourne City, it is already the fourth World Cup participation. The “Football Ferns” have never won a game at a World Cup. That should now change in front of the home crowd.
“We don’t just want to score points, we want to win games. And I hope that I can make a contribution to that,” explained the former Duisburg player. She played ten Bundesliga games for MSV in 2021, in which she scored three goals. Then she moved to Australia.
Wilkinson provided two new zealand World Championship Points
Wilkinson also has a very special relationship with Germany because of the 2011 World Cup. There she made her World Cup debut and scored in added time in the last group game against Mexico to make it 2-2. Her goal gave the New Zealanders their first point in their World Cup history. Four years later she repeated the feat at the tournament in Canada. The 31-year-old scored again in the last group game to make it 2-2, this time against China. Only at the 2019 World Cup in France did the attacker go empty-handed.
Co-hosts in Group A only underdogs
The World Cup in her home country is now the “highlight” of her career, said Wilkinson. “It’s really very special to come home and play in front of our friends and family who have helped us get to where we are now,” said the forward, looking forward to the tournament. In Group A, the “Football Ferns” are just outsiders in one of the first two places, despite their home advantage. Opening opponents Norway (12th) and Switzerland (20th) are ahead of New Zealand, which is 26th, in the FIFA rankings. Only against the Philippines do the co-hosts go into the match as favourites.
Nevertheless, Wilkinson is confident about the games: “We have a very special opportunity to make history in our group. We are facing great challenges, it will be really exciting.”
“Football Ferns” mess up World Cup dress rehearsal
In order to make the long-awaited leap into the round of 16, the “Football Ferns” will have to improve considerably. Despite more than two months of preparation for the World Cup, coach Jitka Klimková’s team botched the dress rehearsal for the Norway duel last Friday (07/14/2023). They lost 1-0 to Italy in Auckland. The biggest problem of the New Zealanders became visible again: the offensive.
“Clearly our main focus is to create more chances and score more goals,” said Wilkinson, before adding pugnaciously: “The team that wants it more will win and no team will want it more than we do.”