Kelly Smith has achieved much in her career but she is unlikely to have featured in a match quite on the scale of tonight’s 1-0 win over Brazil at Wembley that secured Team GB’s passage through to the last eight of the Olympics as group winners.

The victory over one of the pre-tournament favourites was arguably the most significant in the history of the sport in this country, while the attendance of 70,584 was a record for a women’s match on these shores.

The match didn’t go perfectly for the 33-year-old Arsenal Ladies player – she saw a second-half penalty saved – but Smith certainly played her part in a high-class display that saw Hope Powell’s side win the group with a 100 per cent record to set up a last-eight clash with Canada in Coventry on Friday.

The only goal of the game came as early as the second minute and once again it was Smith’s Gunners team-mate Steph Houghton who scored it, continuing her hot streak with a third strike in as many games when she impressively finished from a tight angle after Karen Carney’s superb skill on the right.

With players of the calibre of Marta and Cristiane in their ranks, Brazil not surprisingly threatened but so did Powell’s side, with Smith fizzing an angled strike narrowly wide.

England’s record goalscorer also had a decent heading opportunity before she was handed a great chance to double her side’s tally after Eniola Aluko was brought down by Francielle. But keeper Andreia read Smith’s intentions and dived to her left to save the spot-kick.

Brazil have never failed to reach the last four of the Olympics since women’s football was introduced in 1996, losing the final in both Athens and Beijing, but they were unable to find an equaliser against Powell’s impressive team, who can now look forward with great confidence to the knockout stages of the competition.