Sweden reached the women’s football final at the Olympics for the second consecutive time after beating Australia 1-0 thanks to Fridolina Rolfo’s second-half goal.
Peter Gerhardsson’s side, looking to do better than Rio 2016 by losing to Germany in the final, will face the United States winners of Canada in Friday’s gold medal match.
The United States, which had won 36 straight games against Canada prior to Monday’s surprise 1-0 defeat, will now face Australia for the bronze medal.
Sweden will face Canada in the #OlympicFootball Match for the gold medal
@FridolinaRolfothe only goal in the second half leaves Australia to fight the United States for bronze#Olympic Games | # Tokyo2020 | #Football pic.twitter.com/oPcDInbemn
– FIFA Women’s World Cup (@FIFAWWC) 2 August 2021
Rolfo scored twice when Sweden won 4-2 against Australia in the group stage and came closer to scoring in the first half of this semi-final.
The Barcelona star struck a shot against the crossbar from the edge of the area, although he didn’t have to wait long to find a breakthrough.
A heavily deflected long-range shot bounced awkwardly off the wet surface and a counterattacked Teagan Micah saved him over the crossbar, with the ball returning to play.
Stina Blackstenius helped Rolfo the loose ball and the striker hooked a shot away from Micah for the first time from four yards to score what turned out to be the winning goal.
Australia had spells at the top, but a red card in the 96th minute shown to Ellie Carpenter for dragging Lina Hurtig marked the end of the Matildas’ hopes of reaching a first final.