HAMILTON, New Zealand (AFP) — Sweden set up a Women’s World Cup Last 16 showdown with the United States after a Rebecka Blomqvist header and an Elin Rubensson penalty gave them a 2-0 win over Argentina on Wednesday.
Blomqvist headed home in the 66th minute on a cold and wet night in Hamilton and substitute Rubensson added a last-minute spot kick as Sweden made it three wins out of three to finish top of Group G.
The result also confirmed Argentina’s elimination, as South Africa’s 3-2 win over Italy took the African champions through in second place and handed them a Last-16 tie against the Netherlands.
Meanwhile, the US came into the Women’s World Cup as a favorite to win a third title in a row but it will head into the Last 16 looking anything but champions after limping through the group stage.
There were already doubts about Vlatko Andonovski’s side after an unimpressive 3-0 win over Vietnam in their opening game was followed by a 1-1 draw with the Netherlands.
Andonovski and his players put a positive spin on those displays but there were very few redeeming features about their performance on Tuesday, when they held on for a 0-0 draw with World Cup debutant Portugal to scrape through to the knockout phase.
Ana Capeta’s shot that hit the post in injury time very nearly won the game for Portugal, which would have condemned the holders to an unthinkable group-stage exit.
But aside from surviving that scare, the underlying numbers are concerning for the Americans.
They had less of the possession at Eden Park and failed to score for the first time in 15 World Cup games, since a 0-0 draw with Sweden in the 2015 group phase.
They also had less of the possession in their draw with the Dutch, while their finishing has been poor since the tournament started.
“I don’t think that was a good performance all together, starting from the back,” Andonovski admitted.
“I don’t think we were able to solve the problems that the opponents presented. There were moments where we did and it looked good, but those moments were very few and not enough to be able to walk out of here with several goals.”
Sweden, who had already beaten the South Africans 2-1 with a last-minute winner and then hammered Italy 5-0, will play holders the United States in Melbourne on Sunday.
They were already through to the Last 16 before this game, so Sweden coach Peter Gerhardsson decided to make nine changes to his lineup.
Key forwards Fridolina Rolfo and Stina Blackstenius were among the players rested, with the center-back pairing of Magdalena Eriksson and Amanda Ilestedt the only starters from the Italy game to keep their places.
Argentina had to claim a first ever Women’s World Cup win in 12 attempts to stand a chance of progressing but the world’s 28th-ranked team lacked the quality to break down the Swedish defense.
Olivia Schough had Sweden’s best chances in the first half, initially from a free kick that was saved and then with a header off target from a Sofia Jakobsson cross.
As wind and rain buffeted the crowd of almost 18,000 after half time, Sweden got the breakthrough midway through the second half.
Jakobsson, who plays in the United States for the San Diego Wave, delivered an inviting ball in from the right and Blomqvist simply could not miss.
It was a second goal in as many games for the Wolfsburg forward, who will hope to have done enough here to keep her place in the starting line-up against the US.
