That’s it for tonight’s blog. A match report from Grenoble will appear, as if by magic, in the next hour or so. Thanks for your company and emails - goodnight!

90 min There will be three minutes of added time.

88 min The match is petering out. New Zealand will be glad to get off the pitch after a pretty chastening 90 minutes.

85 min New Zealand make their final change, with Emma Kete replacing Betsy Hassett.

84 min And another change: the excellent Nichelle Prince off, Adriana Leon on.

83 min Another change for Canada: the superb Beckie is replaced by Rebecca Quinn.

81 min There have been a lot of good performances - Erceg, Prince, Riviere - but Janine Beckie has been the best player on the pitch. She has so much class, both in her passing and dribbling.

77 min “Canada look strong all through their team with the exception of a sharp forward,” says Tony Reekie. “Beckie and Prince have been a delight. I’ve been enjoying Scott too. No-nonsense midfielders never get enough praise.”

They look an extremely good side to me; potential winners, in fact, although I agree that they need to be more clinical. They are developing a peculiar habit of battering teams 1-0.

75 min Canada make their first change, with Allysha Chapman replacing the impressive Jayde Riviere.

72 min: Fine save by Nayler! Sinclair, in an inside-left position, clipped an angled cross towards Prince, who arrived late in the box. She flicked a lovely header on the run that was going in the top corner until Nayler flew to her left to palm it over the bar.

71 min After another lovely passing move from Canada – they really do move the ball beautifully - Scott’s long-range shot is deflected behind for a corner. Beckie’s corner is headed behind for another by Stott. Nothing comes of it.

68 min New Zealand can barely get out of their half. It will be a travesty if Canada don’t win this match.

66 min Prince goes on another decisive run before drilling a low shot from 18 yards that is well held by Nayler.

62 min New Zealand make their second substitution, with Anna Green replacing the lonely Sarah Gregorius. She has hardly had a kick, such has been Canada’s dominance.

61 min Canada aren’t sitting on their 1-0 lead. In fact the game is exactly as it was when the score was 0-0.

60 min “Greetings from the western U.S.,” says Peter Oh. “Quite the Commonwealth Games flavour to this fixture. No skin in the game, but I’ll root for Canada simply because... they drive on the right side of the road? Incidentally, the Canadian men will also be in action today, as part of the CONCACAF (North and Central American federations) Gold Cup tournament. Their opponents are also an island country - Martinique.”

58 min Beckie twists Percival inside out and hammers a low cross that is diverted wide by Prince at the far post. She was at full stretch so I’d be loath to call it a miss. Those two have been superb for Canada.

57 min I had a sneaking feeling New Zealand would get something tonight. Not for the last time, I was hopelessly wrong. Canada have been far too good for them.

55 min Canada will qualify for the last 16 if it stays like this.

54 min Prince surges into the area and is about to shoot when Erceg makes an immaculate sliding tackle. She has been superb.

Poor New Zealand. After a strong defensive effort in the first-half, they get sucker-punched early in the second. You’d think they will struggle to come back from that, although they did create a few reasonable chances against the Dutch. They’ll need to find their shooting boots to leave Grenoble with a point or more.

50 min That should have been 2-0. Beckie twists Percival inside out and crosses low to Sinclair, who screws it over the bar with her left foot. She would take a chance like that maybe eight times out of 10.

46 min Beckie has an early effort, curling over the bar from distance.

46 min Peep peep! Canada begin the second half.

Half-time reading

“‘There probably wasn’t quite enough for a penalty’ is an interesting concept,” says Paul Connelly. “If the defender pushes the attacker from behind in the penalty area, it ought to be called a penalty.”

It depends on the force of the push, surely? I didn’t think Percival’s push was strong enough for it to be a penalty, but I can understand the alternative view.

Half-time chit chat

“All Canadian fans are sure we should have had at least two penalties - one for the broken hand and one for the shove in the box,” says Miles Baker. “But we would have accepted just one. Was VAR just watching Overwatch streams in those sweet gamer chairs?”

I guess they didn’t think either was a clear and obvious error, and I’d agree with that, though the Percival shove was risky.

I sat down with New Zealand coach Tom Sermanni this morning, who is one of the nicest people in football. I asked him what he thought of a column in the NZ Herald following their loss to the Dutch, which had the headline: ‘Sermanni has struck cultural chord with Football Ferns but the game sucks’.
The Scotsman was bemused by this, and offered quite a thoughtful response: “You have to play as you have to play. It’s a case of being pragmatic. If he wanted us to play like Barcelona, then the game sucked. If he wanted us to be a NZ team that went out to be competitive, to try and win the game in the way that we could, then we didn’t suck.” You’d have to say more of the same in this game...

44 min It’s been a frustrating half for Canada. They have totally dominated, yet they’ve created nothing from open play. The New Zealand central defenders, Erceg and Stott, are the main reason for that.

42 min Percival shoves Fleming over in the area. The referee waves play on. At first I thought it was a dive; replays suggest that, though there probably wasn’t quite enough for a penalty, it was a pretty risky challenge from Percival.

38 min New Zealand almost grab the lead on the break! They sliced through Canada with some nice passing, until eventually Hassett stood up a good cross from the right side of the area. Labbe’s feeble punch went straight to Chance, who miscued a volley back across goal from six yards. It was a tricky chance in that there were a lot of people between her and the goal, but it was a chance nonetheless.

35 min I’m with Kieran on the Mexican wave, which combines two of the worst things in life: banter and crowds of people.

The Mexican wave has started, after only 33 minutes. If/when I become Fifa president, I intend to implement a rule that only permits Mexican waves late in the second half. I’m not entirely sure how that will be policed, but - at the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man - is it that hard to sit down and enjoy watching the game?!

33 min Question: how did this New Zealand team beat England?

32 min The dangerous Beckie slides a nice ball into Sinclair, who controls it on the run and hits a shot on the turn that is blocked by Erceg. Moments later, Lawrence shoots wide from distance. It’s still all Canada.

29 min Zadorsky’s cross from deep on the left pinballs around the New Zealand area before falling to Sinclair. She guides the ball to Prince, who tries to take on the last defender Stott and is smartly dispossessed. Stott looks a fine player, with and without the ball.

26 min A quiet spell in the game. That suits New Zealand, who needed a breather after 20 minutes of almost constant defending.

22 min Canada have had 72 per cent of the possession in the first quarter.

21 min The teenager Riviere, who has made a fine start on her World Cup debut, wins a corner for Canada. Beckie drives the corner beyond the far post, where it skims off the head of the flying Schimdt. It was just too far in front of here.

19 min Annalie Longo has replaced CJ Bott. She has moved into midfield, with Ria Percival moving to right-back.

18 min When play finally resumes, Canada hit the bar and have a header cleared off the line! A corner from the left was flicked on and headed onto the bar from close range by Sinclair, who probably should have scored. The ball rebounded to Prince, whose header was cleared off the line by Bowen!

17 min Bott is close to tears as she leaves the field, with an ice pack around her right hand.

16 min There’s a long delay while the New Zealand right-back CJ Bott receives treatment. She’s going to come off, in fact. She blocked a cross from Beckie and went down in a lot of pain. Replays showed it deflected onto her hand, which snapped back at the point of impact. She may have broken her wrist.

14 min Prince ignores a challenge, cuts infield and slaps a fierce shot that is blocked on the edge of the area by Erceg. It feels like a Canada goal is coming.

13 min The dangerous Beckie beats Bott with ease on the left and lifts a cross that is headed away by Erceg (I think). This is very one-sided. That said, New Zealand know how to defend and they’ll be happy that Canada haven’t created any clear chances.

This is my sixth stadium of the tournament, and it easily takes the cake. With the foothills of the Alps visible in the background, lit by a softly-setting sun, the aptly-named Stade des Alpes is an absolute beaut. We are also very close to capacity tonight, a stark improvement on recent matches elsewhere.

9 min Canada look so classy in possession – better than I expected, actually, having read a few reports of their 1-0 win over Cameroon. They can play a more direct game, too, and a long ball leads to their first chance. It was headed on by Sinclair towards Beckie, who had to wait an age for the ball to come down and could only head straight at Nayler. It was a tricky chance.

6 min Kadeisha Buchanan, scorer of the winning goal against Cameroon in Canada’s first game, is struggling with what looks like a groin problem. She may need to go off.

5 min We haven’t seen anything of Christine Sinclair yet, but Canada have started brightly in midfield, Sophie Schmidt in particular.

4 min New Zealand’s first attack. Stott brings the ball out confidently and finds Bott, whose long, angled cross is headed away at the far post by the teenager Riviere. Good defending.

3 min Canada have started really confidently, with some slick passing and movement. Beckie shoots over the bar from long range.

1 min Peep peep! New Zealand, in white, kick off from right to left. Canada are in red.

The teams emerge from the tunnel on a pleasant evening in Grenoble. This is a huge game for both teams, and the players look on the nervous side of focussed.

Some World Cup reading

The Netherlands ensured their place in the knockout stages with a 3-1 victory over Cameroon this afternoon, with Arsenal’s brilliant Vivianne Miedema scoring her first World Cup goals to break the Netherlands scoring record - at the age of 22.