The 2007 Women's World cup runners-up Brazil were made to work hard by an impressive Australian team before shading a close game 1-0 courtesy of a strike early in the second half. The Matilda's looked marginally the better side of this Group D encounter in the first-half but were undone in the 54th minute as they failed to clear the ball.
Cristiane capitalized on some sloppy Australian defending to set up Rosana who shot past Melissa Barbieri.
Australia continued to press and Lisa De Vanna might have scored an equalizer but fired over in the 87th minute with only the keeper to beat, then in the final minute a corner caused all sorts of confusion in the South American's rearguard but the Matilda's failed to capitalise.
"This shows the fighting spirit of our team," goalscorer Rosana said.
"Cristiane never gave up that ball for the goal. We deserve congratulations. We fought until the end."
Australia coach Tom Sermanni preferred to take positives from the loss. "We showed today that Australian football is getting better," he said.
"We were up against a team of quality players and we more than held our own. I'm very proud of my players."
