‘Written in the stars’: Matildas goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold becomes national hero after 17-minute emotional rollercoaster

Mackenzie Arnold became a national hero overnight.

The Matildas goalkeeper, later named player of the match, held her nerve throughout a gruelling 17-minute penalty shootout in the FIFA Women’s World Cup quarter-final against France.

With 49,461 screaming fans watching on, Arnold made three crucial saves to book Australia’s spot in the semi-finals for the first time in World Cup history, setting up a blockbuster clash against England on Wednesday evening.

Four years ago, the Matildas had been knocked out of the World Cup in a quarter-finals penalty shootout, and the Queenslander ensured that history wouldn’t be repeated on Saturday evening.

The 20-penalty shootout, the longest in World Cup history, was an emotional rollercoaster from start to finish.

French substitute Eve Perisset stepped up to take the team’s fifth penalty, booting it towards the bottom left corner – but Arnold lunged low to her right, defecting the ball into the post. It put the Matildas one successful shot away from victory, but Arnold later confessed she didn’t expect to take Australia’s fifth penalty.

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“Honestly, that’s the first time I knew I was going to take one,” Arnold later told Channel 7.

“A little bit in shock, but I wanted to do my job for the team.”

However, in yet another dramatic twist, Arnold struck the woodwork, and unmoved French goalkeeper Solene Durand breathed a sigh of relief.

“To see the girls rally around me after I missed that and to keep going with the shootout and still have each other’s backs through the whole thing, I think that’s really what got us over the