First half Chinese goal is enough for 1-0 victory over Russia

While both teams knew at the starting whistle that they were through to the Women's World Cup quarterfinals, there was still a lot on the line for the Chinese and Russian sides, as the loser knew they had an in-form German side waiting, while the victor would face a still dangerous, but strong Canadian side. It was the Chinese side that would score the only goal of the match, a 16th strike by Bai Jie, and would hold off Russia for the 1-0 victory to take first place in group D. This match was played in front of 19,132 fans at Portland's PGE Park.

Just 3 minutes into the match, the Chinese had their first good scoring chance, when a Bai Jie shot was blocked by Russian goalkeeper Alla Volskova, and was cleared by defender Vera Stroukova, but only as far as China midfielder Lihong Zhao, whose shot from 15 yards out was over the bar. During the next several minutes, China had several dangerous crosses into the box that required Volskova to control to keep them away from Chinese strikers.

In the 10th minute, China had a goal disallowed when Sun Wen was ruled offside making a run onto a pass played from near midfield. One minute later, Bai Jie had a good look for China, but her shot from 20 yards out was stopped just under the bar by Volskova.

In the 16th minute, China would get on the board first when a diagonal through ball from Sun Wen found Bai Jie making a run down the right side, and the China striker tapped the ball around the charging Russian keeper, and chipped into the open net to give China a 1-0 lead.

In the 21st minute, Sun Wen was brought down in the Russia box and Liu Ying had a chance to double the lead as she took the ensuing penalty, but her shot was a yard wide left and the score remained 1-0. Sun Wen was causing havoc for the Russian defense, and in the 28th minute she hit a shot just wide right from near the top of the box, followed shortly afterwards by a header that went wide off the right post.

Russia had their first good scoring opportunity of the match in the 39th minute when Alexandra Svetlitskaya hit a shot just wide right from just outside the Russian box. They had another good opportunity about four minutes later when after a Marina Saenko free kick, the saved shot was loose in the box for a few seconds before finally being cleared by the Russian defense. The Russians had the last good opportunity of the half when Bai Jie hit a shot just high from 20 yards out, and the half ended with Russian holding a 1-0 lead.

Neither team threatened in the 2nd half until the 59th minute when Tatiana Egorova hit a shot from just outside the box that curled right to China goalkeeper Wenxia Han. China had two good opportunities in the 67th and 71st minute when Wei Pu hit two shots just over the crossbar from just outside the box. Between those two chances, Russia had their last good opportunity of the match, when a Saenko free kick was deflected into the left side netting.

China had a few more good opportunities, with one forcing a kick save from the Russian keeper, but China was very happy to hold onto their 1-0 victory, which means a quarterfinal match against Canada on Thursday at PGE Park in Portland. Russia will play Germany in the quarterfinals on the same day, also in Portland.

Match report and game photos by Allison Andrews