Carmona fires Spain into WWC final
ISLAMABAD: Olga Carmona scored late to give Spain a thrilling 2-1 semi-final win over Sweden on Tuesday, sending the Iberians into their final Women’s World Cup opener as the tournament left New Zealand in a flurry of goals.
Carmona, wearing the captain’s armband, hit the post from the edge of the box in the 90th minute, two minutes after Rebecka Blomqvist had leveled the game for Sweden at Eden Park in front of a crowd of 43,217. Teenager Salma Paralluelo, Spain’s heroine, again produced magic from the bench in the quarter-final against the Netherlands, leading her team in the 81st minute and slowly and cautiously bringing life to what had been a bargain.
Less than a year after a player uprising tore the team apart, “La Roja” could lift the trophy against Australia or England in the final match on Sunday. Peter Gerhardsson’s Swede retires after another defeat at the penultimate hurdle, having reached the semi-finals four years ago in France and last year at the European Championships.
“It was like a punch in the gut when we got the lead right away. There are no words,” Swedish defender Magdalena Eriksson told Swedish Radio. “I’m incredibly disappointed, we gave everything, we even managed to equalize. Today we fought against a headwind, but we didn’t succeed.”
Fifteen Spanish players threatened to quit last year if coach Jorge Vilda was not replaced, but his decision to replace Alexia Putellas with Paralluelo before the hour mark proved decisive on Tuesday. In a match between Iberian attacking flair and Swedish defensive resilience, Spain were the liveliest team early on, but had nothing to show. It all looked like it was going away for Sweden as normal time ran out, but Lina Hurtig headed.
Published in EDP BLOGS on August 17,2023.
