Defender holds ball in her hands in box: no penalty

The incident happened early in the match in Bochum, with the West Africans trailing Australia by a goal. Television replays showed that a shot by Australian forward Leena Kharmis hit the post and rebounded to Equatorial Guinea defender Bruna, who apparently believed that play had been stopped.

After holding the ball for at least three seconds, she let it fall to the ground, but Hungarian referee Gyoengyi Gaal waved play on amid Australian protests and general incredulity.

The West Africans equalised shortly afterwards, but the Matildas went on to win 3-2. Fifa mentioned the incident in a report on their website, and German magazine Kicker said a Fifa official had apologised at the post-match media conference.

"We all know that there was an incident. We have spoken to the referee. She said that she's very sorry for not seeing such a clear handball," match official Karen Espelund was quoted as saying.

Fifa are studying the use of technology when it is not clear whether the ball has crossed the goal line but this would not apply to penalty area incidents such as the one yesterday.

A number of competitions are now using two additional officials behind the goals to help the referee spot penalty area incidents but the Women's World Cup is not among them.

In Wolfsburg, Marta scored twice in a 3-0 win over Norway to lead Brazil into the quarter-finals. The five-time Fifa world player of the year struck either side of Rosana's goal in the 46th minute, when she scored the opener in the 22nd before putting the game beyond doubt in the 48th.

At a sell-out 26,000 capacity ground, Norway started best before Marta swung the game in the South Americans' favour with the opener.

She might have had a hat-trick but for a save from Ingrid Hjelmseth in the 69th minute.