The Young Football Ferns showed great sportsmanship after their historic win in the quarter-finals of the FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup, rushing to console the beaten Japanese team at the hotel.
Exclusive video to 1 NEWS shows four distraught Japanese players being comforted by the Young Football Ferns, who themselves seem to get emotional as they hug their opponents.
Goalkeeper Anna Leat, who was the hero after scoring the winning penalty in the shootout despite being a reluctant take, said it was still surreal.
It still hasn’t set in that we’ve made it to the top four, it’s crazy, beyond the goals we set but I don’t think it was beyond us as a team at all,” she told 1 NEWS.
The Young Football Ferns will now face Spain in the semi-finals.
“Now we look to go even further,” Leat said.
“At a tournament like this New Zealand is usually the underdog, we’re quite aware of that but little old New Zealand always pulls its weight and we did that.”
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