Sweden eliminated defending champions The United States of America 5-4 on penalties following a 120 minutes goalless affair .

After missing 2 spot kick each from the initial five takes, it went down to sudden death upon which the Europeana came out tops courtesy of Lina Hurtig’s spot kic as US’ Kellen O’Hara missed hers before that..

The game at the Rectangular stadium in Melbourne became the tournament’s first knockout game to go into extra time with both teams remaining resolute in their attempt to go through to the quarter finals

The defending champions were slightly the better team during the course of the the first half as they created more chance than the Swedes but still and for much of their campaignso far, the Americans seem to lack the much needed cutting edge in front of goal.

It remained all square at the end of the keenly fought first half which was pretty much an end to end affair.

There was nothing dissimilar between the first half and the second half despite the fact that the Americans were a shade better but like the first half,, the second half ended all square.

The score line remained the same after the extra time of 30 minutes which met a winner had to emerge from the lottery of penalty kicks. Sweden eventually came out tops at the end of it all, with Lina Hurtig the hero.