“I am so so proud of this group. It’s such an amazing group of people who are working towards one goal. And we did it. I’m so happy for them and the players, for the staff, for the families, for everybody here,”
Klimková told Sky Sport after the victory in front of 42,137 at Eden Park.
”They were the 12th player on the field, everybody around. And I just want to say a big thank you for supporting us because we wouldn’t have done it without them,” she added.
“An incredible performance. We knew if we performed well we could get the result and both goals were succeeded. What a start...we are going to review and get ready for the next one.”
Heading into the match, a question mark bubbled over goal scorer Hannah Wilkinson and whether the veteran could still do the job at the Ferns’ number nine.
In the last 18 months, there’s been several goalless matches and underwhelming performances, but through it Wilkson’s always had a safe spot.
Tonight, in the most important match of her career, she delivered when her team needed it most. Klimková said she never doubted the 31-year-old had it in her.
“I always believed in Hannah Wilkinson’s abilities,” she said. “We know she is a huge threat in the box.
“She was working really hard for this moment, so, seeing her lately how focused she was, how actually confident in what she started to be - that’s what brought her back on the field.”
She added Wilkinson’s performance was clinical, showing how she can be one of the most efficient players on the field.
Klimková has suffered heat in recent months after results and performance have been far from satisfactory. Before Thursday’s match, the Football Ferns had only won once in 12 matches.
An emotional Ali Riley echoed Klimova’s thoughts in her post-match interview. Riley said the side had their doubters after a poor run of form in the last year but they proved anything is possible.
“I’m so so proud. We’ve been fighting for this for so long. We had a clear goal that we wanted to inspire young girls, young people around this country and around the world.
“And I really think we did that tonight. Anything is possible,” she told Sky Sport.
“I think there have been a lot of doubters because of the results we’ve had. But we believed. We believed in ourselves this entire game. We believed in ourselves from the very beginning and we showed it, we played with confidence and with poise and Vic [Esson] was incredible, the defending was incredible and the finish...this is what dreams are made of.”
Riley made special mention of the record crowd at Eden Park.
“The energy helped us get through it and you know, this morning something really, really tragic happened and we wanted to bring something positive tonight and we thought of the victims and the first responders and they made us so proud and we wanted to just help bring something amazing today.
The Ferns now look to Tuesday’s match in Wellington when they face the Philippines – the lowest-ranked team in group A who open their tournament against Switzerland in Dunedin tomorrow.
