The Young Ferns and the Junior Matildas fought out a scoreless draw in the second of three matches between the teams at Canberra's AIS Athletics Stadium on August 14, with the host nation having prevailed 2-1 three days prior. In the opening fixture, which was a "behind closed doors" affair, Jitka Klimkova's young charges enjoyed the better of the exchanges before Sunny Franco struck against the run of play to put the Junior Matildas one-up prior to the half-hour mark. Rhianna Pollicina went close to doubling Australia's lead soon afterwards, while Ashley Arquette was inches away from equalising in the 34th minute, after a slick one-two afforded her a shooting chance. Liz Anton's defensive efforts were integral in keeping the Young Ferns in the contest during the second half, while Abby Roper produced a fine save to foil Pollicina as the Belinda Wilson-coached Junior Matildas enjoyed the better of the midfield exchanges as they looked to close out the match. But Jade Parris had other ideas, Metro's prolific markswoman scoring direct from a corner to the delight of the visiting team, whose hopes of holding out for a draw were dashed in the dying minutes by a long-range piledriver from Junior Matildas captain, Jessica Waterhouse, which clinched the 2-1 win for her team. Wednesday's encounter was every bit as tight as Sunday's affair, with the Young Ferns' defensive resilience nullifying the Junior Matildas' midfield probings, and countering with a play-out-from-the-back approach, a key component of their new coach's footballing philosophy. Sunny Franco had a goal ruled out by the offside flag just after half-time in this goalless affair, which saw the Martine Puketapu-captained Young Ferns

again enjoying the better of the exchanges, only for their trans-tasman rivals to go close to breaking the deadlock via both a post-rattling effort and a side-netting shaker from Tia Gavin. The final clash in the series takes place at the AIS Athletics Stadium on Saturday from 4.30pm NZ time. The Young Ferns have to win the match to replicate the drawn series the countries' U-20 women's teams recently played in Auckland. NB  Football Federation Australia and NZ Football have yet to provide detailed line-up information for both matches played to date. The respective squads are: Australia:     Angela Beard, Isobel Dalton, Sunny Franco, Brooke Goodrich, Afrikah McGladrigan, Teagan Micah, Ayesha Norrie (Queensland); Alexandra Chidiac, Jessica Waterhouse (South Australia); Eleni Fakos, Beatrice Goad, Jessica Pitts, Madeline Stockdale (Victoria); Tia Gavin, Victoria Guzman, Chloe O'Brien, Rhianna Pollicina (NSW); Emily Henderson (Western Australia); Jada Mathyssen-Whyman,  Matilda-Lee Potter (NSW Country); Sophie Nenadovic (Northern NSW); Siena Senatore, Jessica Urquhart (ACT) Young Ferns:     Liz Anton, Milly Hawkins, Deven Jackson, Bella Kingi (Lynn-Avon United); Ashley Arquette (Asia Pacific Football Academy);  Kaitlin Barrott (Lower Hutt City); Emma Cawte, Sophie Stewart-Hobbs (Bay of Plenty); Issy Coombes, Emily Hanrahan (Claudelands Rovers); Hannah English (Dunedin Technical); Hope Gilchrist (Waterside Karori); Geena Gross (Nelson Bays); Emily Oosterhof (Glenfield Rovers); Jade Parris (Metro); Martine Puketapu, Isabella Richards (Three Kings United); Abby Roper (Fencibles United); Paige Satchell (Rotorua United) NB Daisy Cleverley (Forrest Hill-Milford United) withdrew from the squad due to injury