The first match was a big surprise. Norway were the hot favorites and New Zealand had odds of +750 for this particular match. But in the end the Oceanian women managed to defeat the Scandinavians by a margin of 1-0 (goal scored by Hannah Wilkinson). And despite the concerns raised previously, a massive crowd attended this match. Total attendance was 42,137, and this is just unbelievable for a women's football match. And their neighbors (Australia) also managed to win against the Republic of Ireland, and this particular match had a massive attendance of 75,784.
I almost laid in on new Zealand. I always like betting on underdog teams that are host nations and I went against my gut. What a great game they played and with that Norway has to be reeling. I don't follow too much year by year but know Norway was definitely not supposed to take this loss here. Looking forward to see the US team tomorrow night.
Usually the first matches of important championships, especially the World Cup, are matches in which the teams start more nervous, make more mistakes, and the teams with total favoritism end up having a lot of pressure, so it's not unusual to have some surprises at the beginning
A detail that may also have made a difference is that New Zealand was playing at home, with the support of the fans and the motivation was very high
They are difficult matches to bet on, sometimes I prefer to just watch than to bet
From the second matches on I believe the results will be easier to predict
I don't want to go off topic, but just remember Argentina, the 2022 men's champion, lost the first match to Saudi Arabia