Netherlands Women play Brazil Women on Saturday at the Miyagi Stadium, in the second round of fixtures at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Both sides come into this fixture with three points already on the board, but the Netherlands' goal difference will take some beating after they scored 10 against Zambia.
Match preview
© Reuters
Sarina Wiegman's side will be asking themselves how they allowed Zambia time to score three goals in amongst the 10 that the reigning European champions managed on Wednesday.
Arsenal's Vivianne Miedema scored two inside the first 15 minutes, along with Lieke Martens's first strike of the game to put the Oranges 3-0 up early on in Japan.
Miedema completed her hat-trick just before the half hour mark and Wiegman's side went into the break with a comfortable margin of five goals, the scoreline at 6-1.
Zambia's struggle continued in the second half as Miedema got her fourth and Jill Roord, Lineth Beerensteyn and Victoria Pelova joined in on the scoring front also.
However, perhaps with the game already won the Netherlands defence switched off with 10 minutes to go, allowing Zambia striker Barbra Banda to complete her own hat-trick, with the game eventually ending 10-3.
Brazil were also free-flowing scorers in their opening fixture against China PR, keeping a clean sheet and finding the back of the net five times at the Miyagi Stadium.
Marta continued to live up to the expectations of a six-time FIFA World Player of the Year winner by scoring Brazil's first of Tokyo 2020 inside the first 10 minutes, followed by a strike from Debinha as Pia Sundhage's side went into half time 2-0 to the good.
A second goal for Marta followed by a penalty goal from Andressa and a late strike from Beatriz sealed the 5-0 win for Brazil to set up a top-of-the-table clash with Netherlands on Saturday.
Brazil legend Pele hailed Marta as an inspiration after her goals against China made her the first footballer, male or female, to score in five consecutive Olympic Games.
Former Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Formiga also put her name in the record books after she became the first women's player to feature in seven Olympics, appearing in every tournament since women's football was introduced to the Olympics in 1996.
- W
- L
- W
- W
- W
- W
- D
- W
Team News
© Reuters
During such a dominant performance against Zambia, Wiegman was able to substitute her integral players off and conserve their energy for Saturday's clash with Brazil, which will be a much sterner test for the Dutch.
The side that started on Wednesday is likely to stay the same for this weekend, with Martens, Miedema and Shanice van de Sanden looking to add to their goals this summer.
The Arsenal connection between Miedema and Danielle van de Donk was evident during the opening fixture, as the midfielder assisted three of Miedema's four goals against Zambia.
After an emphatic victory for Brazil also on Wednesday, Sundhage is likely stick with the same starting 11, led by Marta and Beatriz at the top of the pitch.
The Netherlands will ask the Brazilian defence more questions than China managed, therefore the back four of Bruna Benites, Erika, Rafaelle and Tamires will have to be on top form to stop Miedema from scoring.
Netherlands Women possible starting lineup:
Van Veenendaal; Van Dongen, Nouwen, Van der Gragt, Bloodworth; Groenen, Van de Donk, Roord; Martens, Miedema, Van de Sanden
Brazil Women possible starting lineup:
Barbara; Tamires, Rafaelle, Erika, Benites; Debinha, Andressinha, Formiga, Duda; Marta, Beatriz
We say: Netherlands Women 1-1 Brazil Women
After both sides were involved in high-scoring games on Wednesday, Wiegman and Sundhage are likely to be aware of the threat the opposition holds on the attack and therefore will set their sides up to be strong defensively.
A point for the Netherlands and Brazil will go a long way to helping them secure a place in the quarter-finals and this game on Saturday will be a close contest, neither side wanting to lose and allow their opponent to claim top spot in Group F.
Top tip
Sammy Wynne
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Netherlands Women win with a probability of 56.42%. A win for Brazil Women had a probability of 23.31% and a draw had a probability of 20.3%.
The most likely scoreline for a Netherlands Women win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.33%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 3-1 (6.86%) and 2-0 (6.82%). The likeliest Brazil Women win was 1-2 (5.8%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (8.47%). The actual scoreline of 3-3 was predicted with a 2.1% likelihood.
