Melissa Tancredi’s brace lead Canada to a 2-1 win over Germany Tuesday afternoon at Rio 2016. (Photo: Canada Soccer)
Canada got their first ever result against Germany this afternoon when a brace from Melissa Tancredi earned them a come-from-behind 2-1 win, all without captain Christine Sinclair. Before this afternoon, Canada had played Germany 12 times in their history and lost every time. Both teams made multiple changes to their recent starting XIs for the match.
Germany opened the scoring in the 13th minute. Allysha Chapman made contact and took down Germany’s Mandy Islacker in Canada’s penalty area, and the referee pointed to the spot. Melanie Behringer buried the penalty kick.
But Melissa Tancredi equalized in the 25th minute, off of an assist from Desiree Scott. Scott intercepted the ball and Tancredi picked it up near the edge of Germany’s 18-yard-box, found space, and buried her shot far post, past two German defenders and keeper Almuth Schult.
Canada didn’t back down after the half-time break, and went ahead in the 59th minute. In front of goal, Tancredi headed in a long free kick sent in by Rebecca Quinn, her seventh career Olympic goal.
Germany kept the pressure on for the remaining 30 minutes of the match, but could not find an equalizer. They came close on multiple occasions, most notably in stoppage time, when Josee Belanger cleared a header from Alexandra Popp off of the line.
Canada and Germany will wait on final results from Groups E and G to find out their quarterfinal opponents.
