Watch Liverpool Women defender Meikayla Moore score three own-goals and get subbed off for New Zealand

Liverpool defender Meikayla Moore endured a first half to forget as she scored three own-goals inside the first 36 minutes while playing for New Zealand against the world champions USA in the SheBelieves Cup.

It was supposed to be a day to remember for all the right reasons for the 25-year-old as she earned a 50th international cap, but she inadvertently scored at the wrong end twice in the fifth and sixth minutes, and after turning the ball past her own goalkeeper yet again half an hour later, her side were 3-0 down.

All three incidents came from crosses from wide positions, with Moore attempting to clear the danger but instead beating her own goalkeeper. She then suffered the ignominy of being substituted in the 40th minute, perhaps mercifully.

Moore's treble was a 'perfect' hat-trick, first turning with her right foot, then with her head, and then with her left foot. But there were suggestions online the second goal could be awarded USA forward Margaret Purce.

Hat-tricks of own-goals are extremely rare, and past examples are few and far between. Retired Belgian men's player Stan Van Den Buijs suffered the same nightmare experience when he scored three own goals in a match in the 1994-95 season for Belgian club Germinal Ekeren against, in a 3-2 defeat to Anderlecht.

In 2002, Madagascan side Stade Olympique de L'Emyrne scored a world record 149 own goals in one match against AS Adema in a deliberate protest.

Thankfully for Moore, her season with her club is going far smoother, as she has been helping Liverpool move into a 10-point lead at the top of the second tier in England, the Women's Championship, putting them on course for promotion to the Women's Super League. The Merseyside club have won 12 of their 15 league games so far this term to occupy the sole promotion spot, ahead of second-placed London City Lionesses.

Moore's national team were playing in their second match of the SheBelieves Cup in California, a four-team competition which England won in 2019, but the Lionesses are not taking part this year because they are hosting the Arnold Clark Cup on home soil instead.

Back-to-back World Cup winners the USA are the favourites to win the event, which also involves Iceland and the Czech Republic. New Zealand suffered a narrow 1-0 loss in their opening game on Thursday, with West Ham United's Dagny Brynjarsdottir on the scoresheet for Iceland in that game. 

USA went on to win the game 5-0 thanks to goals at the correct end for Ashley Hatch and Mallory Pugh.