Sweden has been allowed to perform both before and during the match as three objectives in the first half of the match have assisted them to win the Chaba Kaew. Header Linda Sembrant, accompanied by the well-taken objective of Kosovo Asllani and a surprise hit by Fridolina Rolfo efficiently finished the match in midnight. The Scandinavians increased the goal difference before their final match against United States in Lina Hurtig’s header of 81st minute and Elin Rubensson’s punishment for injury time.
“I’ve never won a match before playing it and I never will. You prepare for a number of potential scenarios and then you have to play it. Sometimes you have to wait to get a result like Chile, but today was a little easier, we got a set piece goal. The USA match will be different, but it will be an important match for us naturally. We knew that Thailand has a really good counter attacking game and they’re very good at getting out of a situation with two or three passes. It is always disappointing [to concede] but it happened fairly late in the match.”
Peter Gerhardsson, Sweden coach
It was a greatly improved output for Thailand from a 13-0 loss in the United States and Kanjana Sung-Ngoen had the final objective of celebrating and appreciating it for years to come. Now they’re going to go into a revitalized and promising one-point game against Chile-or perhaps all three.
“It’s good that we had five different scorers. I felt that we found a number of avenues to break through and overall it was a good match. I think the further we go in the tournament, the tougher the teams [will be], so it was positive we could create a lot in the last third. It was a decent performance and now we just want to focus on the USA, that’s the next game.”
Kosovare Asllani, Player of the Match
Thailand may be the base of Group F, but it wasn’t easy for Kanjana Sung-Ngoen and her colleagues if their early comfort objective struck the back of the net!
“This goal meant a lot to us. It’s a difficult goal and playing a great team like Sweden, it meant so much. It meant that all of our preparation paid off. We had a lot of chances today. This one goal made us laugh, made us smile and makes us happy. Our defeat in the last game was massive: yes, we were disappointed. But even if we score one today we made some success. But we still need to improve and get close to the other super teams. Chile will be difficult next but getting a point at this World Cup is what we want to do.”
Nuengrutai Srathongvian, Thailand coach
