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Women's Football World Cup News

Solitary strike for Swedes

Women's Football World Cup News 28 Jun 2011

Sweden 1 (Landstrom 57) Colombia 0
att: 21,106; at Leverkusen
Sweden opened up their World Cup campaign with a 1-0 victory against Finals debutants Colombia after dominating the match for the entire 90 minutes.

The pattern of the match was established as early as the third minute when Lotta Schelin's shot was cleared off the line by Colombia captain Natalia Gaitan. Schelin was again denied by a goal line clearance from Gaitan following a cross by Caroline Seger and Jessica Landstrom fired a great chance over the bar.

Sweden continued to press but the Colombians dug in and stubbornly held out for the remainder of the first half to keep the scoreline goalless going into the interval.

Early in the second half, Schelin almost found the net as her shot beat Sandra Sepulveda and rolled across the face of goal but Colombia's resistance was finally broken shortly afterwards.

Schelin broke down the right and her low cross evaded Sepulveda and left Landstrom with the simple task of tucking the ball into the empty net for the opening goal.

Sweden still dominated matters after the goal and should have increased their lead on a number of occasions with Therese Sjogran passing up a good chance and Sepulveda making a good save from Sofia Jakobsson.

Carmen Rodallega - cousin of Wigan Athletic striker Hugo - produced Colombia's best attempt on goal with a dipping effort which was narrowly off target but Sweden will be left wondering how their margin of victory wasn't far greater than their solitary goal.

Sweden: Hedvig Lindahl, Charlotte Rohlin, Linda Forsberg (sub Sofia Jakobsson 54mins), Annica Svensson, Caroline Seger (sub Nilla Fischer 69mins), Sara Thunebro, Sara Larsson, Lotta Schelin, Jessica Landstrom (sub Madelaine Edlund 81mins), Therese Sjogran, Lisa Dahlkvist.

Colombia: Sandra Sepulveda, Kellis Peduzine, Natalia Gaitan, Diana Ospina, Nataly Arias, Daniela Montoya (sub Yulieht Dominguez 66mins), Catalina Usme (sub Katerin Castro 59mins), Andrea Peralta (sub Ingrid Vidal 79mins), Carmen Rodallega, Yoreli Rincon, Lady Andrade.