sweden sweep past australia to seal semi-final berth published: sunday 10 july 2011, 15.45cet
sweden will tackle japan for a place in the fifa women's world cup final after beating australia 3-1 thanks to two early goals and lotta schelin's second-half strike in augsburg.
sweden will face japan in the fifa women's world cup semi-finals after recording a 3-1 victory against australia in augsburg.
the european side dominated the encounter and raced into a two-goal lead thanks to early strikes from therese sjögran and lisa dahlkvist, but they had to stay alert after ellyse perry reduced the deficit before half-time. despite tenacious opponents, sweden increased their cushion again when lotta schelin found the net and, as she and her team-mates held firm, they could also celebrate securing a place at the 2012 olympic games.
schelin began the game by spurning a superb chance as she looked to pounce on a collette mccallum back pass, but her side did not have to wait long to make the breakthrough. with 11 minutes gone, the olympique lyonnais forward collected a long pass, danced beyond perry and cut the ball back for sjögran to finish inside the near post.
thomas dennerby's charges were soon cheering their second goal as sjögran turned provider five minutes later, spearing in an expert cross for dahlkvist to head past melissa barbieri. josefine öqvist almost made it three with a header that missed the target, but it was australia who registered next as perry collected a short corner from mccallum and unleashed a fierce left-footed effort high into the far corner.
that gave australia renewed hope, but seven minutes after the restart sweden restored their two-goal advantage. kim carroll played the ball back to barbieri and failed to notice schelin lurking, leaving the 27-year-old free to round the goalkeeper before finishing into an empty net. with hedvig lindahl in excellent form at the other end, saving brilliantly from substitute tameka butt in particular, sweden saw out the rest of the game to set up wednesday's meeting with japan in frankfurt.
france will meet the united states the same day after sunday's second quarter-final served up a thrilling encounter, the north american challengers beating brazil 5-3 on penalties at the end of a 2-2 draw.
the usa scored via a daiane own goal after just two minutes but had rachel buehler dismissed midway through the second half and required abby wambach's leveller two minutes into extra-time stoppage time to prevent marta's double winning the day for brazil. hope solo then saved daiane's spot kick to give her side the edge in the shoot-out.
