Football Ferns must create scoring chances At a glance

The Football Ferns insist they gathered momentum the last time they were together, when they suffered a pair of one-sided losses to Australia in April, and are hoping to build on it over the next five days against Norway and Wales.

Beating the European Championship-bound Norwegians would certainly be impressive, even if they did manage it last time they met, in April 2019.

Since then, Norway have regained the services of star forward Ada Hegerberg, who ended a five-year self-imposed exile from the national team in March, shortly before winning the Champions League with French club Lyon in May.

The second match, against Wales, will give the clearest indication of where the Ferns are at, just over 12 months out from the next Fifa Women’s World Cup, which New Zealand will host alongside Australia.

Wales didn’t qualify for the 16-team Euros and will be up against it to make it to the 32-team World Cup, a tournament they’ve never played in.

Ranked 31st in the world by Fifa, they’re the kind of team the 22ndranked

Football Ferns fixtures (NZ time):

■ Tomorrow, 3am: v Norway; Ullevaal Stadium, Oslo

■ Wednesday, June 29, 5am: v Wales; Pinatar Arena, Pinatar, Spain

Ferns should be beating, even if they failed to do last time they met, on the eve of the 2019 World Cup in France.

Centre back Claudia Bunge said ‘‘the last 20 minutes of the second game’’ against Australia in Canberra in April in particular were ‘‘really good’’.

‘‘We had the ball a lot more, which is the type of style that we want to be playing more consistently. We’re really excited to come up against two very different teams and see how we can execute our game plan.’’

The caveat is that the Ferns were 3-1 down at halftime and the Matildas had withdrawn several of their starters, after they had to push right to the end to score two stoppage time goals and win 2-1 in Townsville three nights before.

Fashioning chances is the biggest area where the Ferns need to improve, having been outshot by a three-to-one ratio across coach Jitka Klimková ’s nine matches in charge so far.