West Ham Women’s goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold is all smiles after Australia make history at the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Arnold was the star of the Matilda’s win against France after making 3 penalty saves and helping her team reach their first ever World Cup semi-final on Saturday. The hammers goalkeeper also picked up the Player of the Match award for her efforts.

Their was no surprise with how well Arnold played last weekend, as the keeper has shown her strengths at her time with West Ham in the WSL. Back in May 2021 she saved two from the game against Manchester City, and more recently she denied former team mate Alisha Lehmann from the spot in October 2022 against Aston Villa.

It was a tense 120 minutes of play in Brisbane, where the score line remained 0-0, resulting in very tense round of penalties. But the 27-year-old stepped up to the spot and made some superb saves, and it was the Matilda’s that came out on top, meaning they will face England in the semi-finals tomorrow morning.

A proud Mackenzie Arnold explained how she felt in her post-match press conference.

“I’m still processing everything, and I think it might take me a couple of days to figure everything out,” she explained. “It was just an unreal night, I’m speechless right now.

“I was incredibly disappointed to know that I could have won the game for the girls and to have missed that penalty, but the way that my teammates rallied around me and kept me in it was incredible.

“At the end of the day, my job is to keep the ball out of the net, and thankfully I could do that for them. We all do it for each other out there, and I’m glad my teammates have my back 100%.”

Arnold also explained her thoughts after it was deemed she had moved from her line during Kenza Dali’s first penalty kick, and how it felt to not only save the first attempt, but to also go on and save the players second attempts shortly after.

“It was quite stressful for me,” she explained. “I knew I couldn’t change my technique and I had to believe in myself and know that what I was doing was right. There was a little bit of mind games in there, trying to figure out whether she would go the same side or change.

“We’ve used these situations in training and worked on scenarios like this, and luckily I was able to get the job done for the girls on that occasion.”

The stadium erupted after that final spot kick, and despite this night being so important for Australia, the hammers No 1 kept those thoughts at bay and did not let the pressure get to her.

“I definitely ignore that noise when I’m in the zone. I don’t want to get ahead of myself and as a team we always take one game at a time. We keep taking it one step at a time, and now that we’ve reached the semi-final we can take a minute to actually process what we’ve been able to achieve.

“It’s a quick turnaround, so we will review things tomorrow and then go again ready for the next game.”

You can watch the Matilda’s take on the Lionesses in their semi-final clash on Wednesday morning, and will be broadcasted live on BBC One and iPlayer from 11:30am BST.

Written by Katie Vine.