MELBOURNE-Sweden beat the US 5-Four on penalties to sentence the defending champions to their earliest Ladies’s World Cup exit on Sunday after the groups have been locked at 0-Zero on the finish of additional time.
Lina Hurtig struck the profitable spot-kick at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium to cap a madcap shootout within the spherical of 16 conflict, although US goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher parried the ball on the road and the end result wanted to be confirmed by VAR. Sweden head right into a quarter-final towards Japan in Auckland on Friday nevertheless it was the primary exit earlier than the semifinals in 9 World Cups for the People, who have been bidding for an unprecedented third consecutive title.
Gloomy US coach Vlatko Andonovski was not satisfied Hurtig’s spot-kick had crossed the road. “It’s a tricky second, a second the place it’s onerous to undergo,” he informed a press convention. “You have got hopes that the ball didn’t cross the road. “That simply reveals how merciless this recreation will be.”
Sweden’s Magda Eriksson mentioned her workforce had proven coronary heart if not their finest recreation, having been dominated for a lot of the match. “We’re so completely satisfied proper now,” she mentioned in a radio interview. “I don’t understand how we managed to remain on this recreation. “We didn’t play our greatest recreation, however not directly we confirmed we’re hard-headed, we confirmed coronary heart, we by no means quit. We took it to further time, we took it to penalties and we managed to win.”
Younger US ahead Sophia Smith was left shattered, having had an opportunity to win the match for the four-times champions when she stepped up within the penalty shootout solely to blast the ball over the bar. She was not the primary participant in her workforce to overlook. The talismanic Megan Rapinoe, famend for her peerless file in shootouts, thumped the US’ fourth kick over the bar after Sweden’s Nathalie Bjorn additionally fired excessive.
Andonovski mentioned the U.S. had been practising penalties for the final 9 months. “I do know we have been criticised for the best way we performed … I feel we got here out immediately and have been all concerning the grit, the resilience,” he mentioned. Goalkeeper Zecira Musovic was Sweden’s hero, having made 11 saves earlier than the shootout to maintain them within the match.
Typically starved of possession, the Swedes didn’t have a shot on objective till the 85th minute when substitute Sofia Jakobsson danced into the realm, solely to shoot straight at Naeher. Naeher saved Rebecka Blomqvist’s fourth shot for the Swedes within the shootout however Smith’s miss saved the Scandinavians in it.
After Naeher and Magdalena Eriksson transformed their spot-kicks, Kelley Ohara despatched her effort pinging off the fitting publish, permitting Hurtig to step up and ship the champions out of the event. The US will marvel how the match needed to go to a shootout, having dominated the play and unleashed 21 pictures, together with 11 on the right track. Trinity Rodman proved a menace down the fitting wing early, testing the Swedish keeper twice within the first half-hour.
Lindsey Horan thumped a header towards the bar and Musovic denied her once more with a low dive when the US skipper fired a deflected cross on the far publish. Musovic produced one other great save to cease an Alex Morgan header and see the Swedes into further time, then foiled a Lynn Williams shot within the first interval. Rapinoe got here on to exchange Morgan in further time however couldn’t conjure the magic that helped the US to back-to-back World Cup triumphs in Canada in 2015 and France 4 years in the past.
In the meantime, Jill Roord scored her fourth objective of the event because the Netherlands marched into the quarterfinals of the Ladies’s World Cup with a 2-Zero win over South Africa at Sydney Soccer Stadium on Sunday. Roord’s header gave her aspect an early lead and Lineth Beerensteyn added the second objective courtesy of a goalkeeping error within the second half to safe the Dutch a date with Spain in Wellington on Friday.