At one point it appeared that Norway were set to replicate their feeble showing at last year’s European Championships, in which Hege Riise’s side were thrashed by England and failed to reach the knockout stages. Sophie Haug however had other ideas, hitting a hat-trick as Norway hit the Philippines for six to finish second in Group A.

Whilst Haug rightly hogged the headlines, Frida Maanum looked back at her best in a swashbuckling Norway display. The Arsenal midfielder forced an own goal off of Alicia Barker with a driven low cross into the six yard box as Norway won 6-0 at Eden Park.

Whilst Norway found their flow to progress into the knockouts, Switzerland limped through to the next stage of the tournament with a turgid 0-0 draw against co-hosts New Zealand. 

Noelle Maritz started once again at centre-back, having also played at left-back in Switzerland’s opener, with captain Lia Walti anchoring the midfield. 

New Zealand needed to win to leapfrog Switzerland, who chose the defensive route to qualification which only just proved successful.

Group B comes to a conclusion on Monday with Katie McCabe and Ireland looking for their first points of the tournament against Nigeria, whilst Canada take on Australia at the same time. 

Nigeria sit top of the group after their epic win over Steph Catley and Caitlin Foord’s Matildas, who are set to be boosted by the return of Sam Kerr.