Sweden scored either side of half-time to spoil Australia’s party and claim third spot at the Women’s World Cup with a 2-0 win in Brisbane on Saturday. In front of a crowd of nearly 50,000, Sweden took the lead with a 30th-minute penalty by Fridolina Rolfo and doubled their advantage with a powerful strike from Kosovare Asllani just after the hour. It is the fourth time that Sweden have finished third at the tournament. “It was an incredibly important match and the final 10 minutes were really tough,” coach Peter Gerhardsson said. “So when that final whistle went and we had won, there was a great sense of relief and it was a wonderful feeling. It’s great to win a match of this magnitude – there’s been a lot of attention paid to this tournament back in Sweden.”
Sweden fully deserved their win against the hosts, dominating the midfield and keeping talismanic Australian striker Sam Kerr relatively quiet. Australia’s other dangerous attacker, Mary Fowler, had a night to forget as she struggled physically against the size and power of the Swedish defenders.
By contrast, Sweden striker Stina Blackstenius caused havoc among the Australian defence during her 63 minutes on the pitch and had a hand in both goals. Player of the match Rolfo said: “We showed from minute one that we were the better team. We deserved (to win) this match.”
Some of the Australia players were in tears at the end, but this was still the co-hosts’ best World Cup ever. “We wanted to have some hardware to take home, it wasn’t to be,” said Kerr, who did not start a game at the tournament until the 3-1 semi-final defeat to England because of injury.
The skipper attempted to look at the bigger picture, saying: “We’ve proved to the world – and also within Australia – that we are a footballing nation.”