Le Havre (France): The United States made it a perfect three wins out of three at the Women’s World Cup on Thursday by beating Sweden 2-0 to top Group F, while Ajara Nchout fired Cameroon into the last 16 with a last-gasp winner.
The Americans will continue their bid to defend their world title against Spain in Reims on Monday after a win that saw them make it 18 goals for the tournament and break the 24-year-old record for the number of goals scored in the group stage held by Norway.
Lindsey Horan opened the scoring when she tapped home Samantha Mewis’ flick with two minutes on the clock, and Tobin Heath helped make sure of the points by firing past Hedvig Lindahl via a big deflection off Jonna Andersson four minutes after the break.
Andersson’s own goal somehow survived a VAR check from referee Anastasia Pustovoytova despite substitute Carli Lloyd looking to be offside in the build-up. However afterwards Lloyd claimed she hadn’t seen the incident, with Heath saying that she would “take the goal” all the same. Lloyd replaced star player Alex Morgan at half-time after the 29-year-old took a knock in the opening 45 minutes, but USA coach Jill Ellis was non-committal on whether she would be fit for Spain.
“Alex took a knock in the first half and it was more of let’s be smart about this, in terms of what we did,” she said. “It’s a zero risk game in terms of having players available in the next round.”
Sweden started with a team with seven changes from the side that beat Thailand 5-1 last time out and four players making their World Cup debut, and offered very little attacking threat. (AFP)
