In the past seven minutes it took two objectives, but Sweden overcame Chile’s challenge and won its opening game for only the second time in a women’s World Cup. Defeat is a bitter swallowing pill for La Roja Feminina, but it will be promoted by how long they held against this Swedish side, especially in view of the difficulty of the weather after midnight.

“I think it was a really tough game for our team. We’ve been following Sweden as an opponent. We’ve looked at our physical fitness and this has been quite complex for our team. This created a difference between the teams and we’ve really had to look at all types of situations. Our players gave their all throughout the entire game. Of course, it was a difficult game and unfortunately, during the last 10 minutes the result changed.”
– Jose Letelier, Chile coach

Chile kept a very skilled Swedish side for 83 minutes. You’ll understand that before matches with the USA and Thailand, they have to catch up now.

The Swedes who took a lengthy, long time to discover the net will find the three points relief. From the beginning to the end, they dominated, but still thought it could end without a goal. There wasn’t much doubt as quickly as the first objective was achieved.

“We’ve been following Chile for many matches now and there are some very skilled players, not least their goalkeeper, so we knew this would be a tough match. We saw how they played tactically against the Netherlands and also the match against Germany – they scored one goal on a corner, and one on a failed kick. They never constructed much play so we knew this would be a tough match. They’re a tactically skilled team and we’re very happy that we won.”
– Peter Gerhardsson, Sweden coach

Speak about the start of a World Cup. Janogy went off to give Sweden a victory by participating straight in the first objective and scoring the second. Only the week before she flew to France she had her first national team objective!

The Swedish win is earned in line with the opportunities they have generated during the entire match. Their defensive teamwork was fantastic until the first objective. Chile performed well. However, they must generate target opportunities; that is their greatest challenge.

Image: Kane Oosty/FIFA