Sweden beat England to Women's World Cup third place finish
A stubborn Sweden beat England to third-place at the Women’s World Cup after the Lionesses saw an equaliser in the first half ruled out by VAR.
Sweden dominated early on and made England pay for Alex Greenwood’s defensive error. Kosovare Asllani put them 1-0 up before a fine finish from Sofia Jakobsson doubled their lead.
England pulled one back after Fran Kirby curled one past Hedvig Lindahl and less than two minutes later Ellen White saw her equaliser ruled out after a VAR check for handball.
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Philip Neville’s side struggled to break Sweden down in the second half despite having the majority of possession, they failed to make any clear cut chances to find an equaliser until the final minute of the match.
Lucy Bronze saw her well struck volley cleared off the line by defender Nilla Fischer as Sweden held on to win 2-1, for a fourth top-three finish.
For England, fourth-place is their second-best finish at a Women's World Cup, after they came third in Canada four years ago.
England fell behind in the 11th minute as Sweden punished an error by Alex Greenwood. The full-back’s attempted clearance went straight to Kosovare Asllani who fired past Carly Telford.
Five minutes later, Telford pulled off a fine stop as she turned Sofia Jakobsson's strike against the post.
Sweden continued to pile on the pressure and doubled their advantage in the 22nd minute after a well worked move.
Jakobsson collected a pass from Stina Blackstenius, advanced into the box and curled it past Telford into the bottom right hand corner.
England started to find some rhythm and pulled a goal back just after the half-hour mark as Kirby received the ball from Jill Scott, cut in from the right and found the back of the net off the far post.
Within moments, it looked as if the Lionesses had equalised, Ellen White bringing down a Beth Mead delivery with her back to goal, turning and squeezing it past Lindahl.
But there was a VAR check for handball and, after watching footage back pitchside, referee Anastasia Pustovoytova disallowed the goal.
Karen Carney came on to replace Nikita Parris to make her 144th and final England appearance with 16 minutes to go.
The best chance of the second half fell to Bronze who saw her volley cleared off the line by Fischer in the final minute as Sweden held on to win 2-1.