Tokyo 2020 Women’s Football: Canada win gold after the final goes to penalties

Canada strike gold after 20-year-old Julia Grosso’s spot-kick saw them beat Sweden 3-2 on penalties.

After the players raised concerns over the temperature during the planned kick-off, officials agreed to move the game with the teams now walking out under the floodlights of the International Stadium Yokohama in the evening.

Both teams went into the game with the chance to make history by winning their countries first women’s football gold. Sweden won silver in Rio 2016 while Canada were bronze medal winners in the last two Olympic games.

As the game got underway, the Canadians enjoyed large spells of possession as the Swedes used their speed on the counter to challenge Stephanie Labbé in the Canadian goal.

In their most attacking performance of the games, it was Bev Priestman’s side who looked most likely to open the scoring in the first 25 minutes. After a brilliant run from Nichelle Prince she crossed a perfect ball into the box, avoiding the oncoming defenders and into the path of Janine Beckie, but with Beckie in what she thought was an offside position, she let the ball pass her by, giving up their best chance of the first-half.

With her fifth goal of the tournament, Sweden’s Stina Blackstenius put her team into the lead in the 34th minute. Latching on to the end of a Kosovare Asllani cross, the ball took an unfortunate deflection off the knee of Vanessa Gilles which saw it go past the diving Labbé.

The goal kicked Sweden into a new gear and they began to look more dangerous. Winning balls and creating a high press to put pressure on the Canada defence.

10 minutes into the second-half, Canada had a way back in. A tackle on Christine Sinclair was followed with big shouts for a penalty. After a VAR check, Jessie Fleming stepped up to the spot. After scoring the goal that got them into the final, the Chelsea forward looked cool, calm and collected firing her shot past Hedvig Lindahl into the top left corner.

With a new lease of life after their equaliser, Canada looked lively. Every player was fighting for that medal as the ball was played from end to end with chances for both teams.

With chances missed by both sides, extra-time was looming. Something neither team would have wanted after six games in just 16 days, one of which had already gone to 120 minutes for Canada.

As the 30 minutes of extra-time began to run out, both teams were looking for that extra spark to get the win and avoid penalties, with all players back defending when the opposition had the ball in the box.

With three minutes to go, Sweden came agonisingly close. After a scramble in the box, it looked like the ball might have snuck in, but it was cleared off a very busy goal line.

As the whistle blew both coaches had their notebooks out, ensuring all players were calm and ready to take to the spot. Labbé and Lindahl looked composed and the shootout began.

After a selection of weak penalties from both sides and some good saves from the goalkeepers, the youngster from the University of Texas was tasked with taking the sixth shot for Canada. In the most important moment of her career, Grosso slotted her shot into the net to secure gold for her team.

For the second Olympics in a row, Sweden took silver with the USA taking bronze after their 4-2 win over Australia.

Follow us on Twitter @ProstInt