Women’s World Cup: Colombia shock Germany to go top of Group H

Manuela Vanegas scored a late winner to give Colombia a stunning win over Germany at the Women’s World Cup.

Linda Caicedo scored one of the best goals of the tournament to give Colombia the lead, before Alexandra Popp’s 89th-minute penalty looked to have rescued a point for the world’s second-ranked team.

But Vanegas headed in Leicy Santos’s corner to condemn the Germans to a first World Cup group stage loss since 1995.

The win puts Colombia three points clear at the top of Group H, whilst Germany remain level on points with Morocco after they beat South Korea earlier.

Germany meet South Korea on Wednesday and need to match Morocco’s result against Colombia to earn their place in the last 16. Colombia need just a point to guarantee their place in the second round as group winners, and will qualify regardless if Germany fail to beat South Korea.

“Obviously, you need to be happy and euphoric because this is a great win for the whole country and we’ve been feeling this,” said Colombia assistant coach Angelo Marsiglia.

“But look, the game and the tournament still continues so we’ll go step by step. We have a very mature team and they know what they want.”

A moment of magic opened the scoring when 18-year-old wonderkid Caicedo jinked her way past two defenders before firing into the top-right corner in style, but Germany thought they had rescued a point when Popp scored from the spot after goalkeeper Catalina Perez fouled Lena Oberdorf.

Colombia had other ideas though when full back Vanegas rose highest at a corner to head in from 10 yards and secure an unlikely win.

Cover Photo: Colombian flag, Cartagena, Colombia” by Niek van Son is licensed under CC BY 2.0 .