Sweden resoundingly defeated Italy 5-0 in Wellington, securing their qualification for the round of 16 in the ongoing FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament.
Sweden were dominant on set pieces, resulting in three goals. Rebecka Blomqvist completed the scoring in added time, finishing after a quick counter attack.
Despite the scoreline, Italy were the better side for the first 25 minutes.
Coming into the game following an impressive 1-0 win against Argentina, Italy will naturally be disappointed with how things turned out today.
There are definite positives they can take away from today, for starters they were relatively strong defensively from open play and certainly didn’t give up many clear cut opportunities.
They were naive defending on corners and sometimes being too sloppy, giving the ball away in their defensive third while being pressed.
Naturally the goals flying in took some of the fire out of them but in the first 25 minutes especially they had the better of the game and asked questions that Sweden had to provide answers for.
With South Africa in the final game, it’s all to play for in determining which one of them will go through.
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