Christine Sinclair scores, Canada opens Algarve Cup defence with win over Danes

ALBUFEIRA, Portugal – Christine Sinclair scored in the 90th minute as Canada’s women’s soccer team opened its defence of its Algarve Cup title with a dramatic 1-0 win over Denmark on Wednesday.

Sinclair scored her 166th career international goal when she fired the rebound of a Deanne Rose shot past the Danish goalkeeper.

Stephanie Labbe picked up the clean sheet in goal for Canada, which was playing competitive soccer fr the first time since winning bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

“Denmark started strong for the first ten minutes, but we weathered the storm and found our rhythm,” Canada head coach John Herdman said. “It’s like our team just picked up where we left off in Rio, and it was great to see those relationships, that were forming last year, come alive.”

Canada, ranked fourth in the world by FIFA, is in a group with Denmark, Russia and host Portugal. Russia beat Portugal 1-0 on Wednesday to tie Canada atop Group A with three points.

Russia and Canada play on Friday.