Haiti beats Chile and advances to the Women’s World Cup for the first time

• The Haitian women’s soccer team is heading to the Women’s World Cup.
• The score closed at 2 – 1.
• They will play the World Cup in Group D, along with England, China and Denmark.

The whole world witnessed an important match that would change the fate of the teams that will play in the Women’s World Cup to be held in Australia and New Zealand this year. One of them is Haiti, who beat Chile and advanced to the Women’s World Cup for the first time.

According to The Associated Press Haiti beat Chile 2-1 on Wednesday and qualified for the Women’s World Cup for the first time, bringing some joy and «a breath of fresh air» to their fans in a country plagued by calamities.

Haiti beats Chile and advances to the Women’s World Cup for the first time

Melchie Dumornay scored twice so that the Haitian team, located in 55th place in the FIFA ranking, guaranteed that it will return to the southern hemisphere in July, in order to play in the Women’s World Cup in Group D, along with England, China and Denmark.

Haiti is the first of three teams to qualify for the Women’s World Cup since this intercontinental playoff between 10 teams in New Zealand. Portugal later faced Cameroon in Group A, while Paraguay faced Panama this Thursday to define the last tickets among the 32 teams that will play the tournament co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia.

The last moments of the game were tense

Dumornay was recently signed by seven-time Champions League champion Lyon. And during the game it became clear why. She provided two excellent definitions. She won the race on a forward pass by Roselord Borgella in first-half stoppage time, as the Haitians led 1-0 at halftime.

And in the eighth of the added 11 minutes, Dumornay extended the lead. Earlier, Chilean captain Christiane Endler had saved a Nerilia Mondesir penalty. But María José Rojas scored 11 minutes into injury time to keep Chile’s hopes alive. The last moments of the game were tense, before Les Grenadiers secured the victory.

Never before had the Haitians defeated a South American rival

The Haitian players cried and hugged after the final whistle. Some reflected on success in the midst of a series of adversities. Haiti had to win two matches in New Zealand in order to qualify for their first Women’s World Cup and beat  Senegal 4-0 in their first match. Now they have beaten Chile, ranked 38th in the world.

Never before had the Haitians defeated a South American rival. Before the tournament, midfielder Danielle Etienne had said: «There is a lot of unhappiness in the country, and soccer is the joy. We want the country as a whole to get a breath of fresh air and be able to get away from everything that’s going on a bit,” she said.

Women’s World Cup 2023: Australia and New Zealand will be the host nations

According to SportingNews The 2023 Women’s World Cup will be held for the ninth time in Australia and New Zealand with both nations hosting matches in Oceania for the first time.

FIFA’s decision to expand the number of participating teams from 24 to 32 has opened up the opportunity for several teams to participate in the Women’s World Cup for the first or second time.