Nice, France: Sweden ended their women’s World Cup campaign on a high by beating England 2-1 in Saturday’s third-place play-off in Nice, as Sofia Jakobsson’s first-half strike proved to be the winner.
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England were looking to claim the bronze medals for the second successive World Cup, but it was Peter Gerhardsson’s side who finished third for the third time.
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Kosovare Asllani gave Sweden an 11th-minute lead, before Jakobsson curled in an excellent second midway through the first half, and although Fran Kirby quickly pulled one back, England could not find an equaliser.
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It was a second defeat in under a week for Phil Neville’s Lionesses, after suffering their third straight major tournament semi-final loss when beaten 2-1 by reigning champions the United States tomorrow.
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The Americans will face the Netherlands in the final in Lyon on Sunday.
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England, whose men’s team also lost the third-place play-off in last year’s World Cup to Belgium, started slowly and were made to pay for slack defending as Asllani put Sweden in front.
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Left-back Alex Greenwood was at fault, totally miskicking an attempted clearance straight to Asllani, who drilled a low finish into the net.
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Neville’s team were all over the place at the back and almost fell two goals down inside the quarter-hour when Jakobsson ran clear and fired against the post.
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The Montpellier winger was not to be denied in the 22nd minute, though, cutting inside and bending the ball past the despairing dive of England goalkeeper Carly Telford.
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An end-to-end opening period continued as Kirby, back in the English starting line-up after coming on as a substitute against the Americans, clipped the ball in off the far post to score her first World Cup goal.
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Ellen White thought she had equalised less than two minutes later with a tournament-leading seventh goal, but was denied by VAR review for handball.
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White had also seen a goal ruled out by VAR in the loss to the USA.
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The 30-year-old, level at the top of the scoring charts with US star Alex Morgan, almost equalised again on the stroke of half-time but shot straight at Swedish ‘keeper Hedvig Lindahl.
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England dominated the ball for much of the early stages of the second half, but Sweden, who lost to the Dutch in extra time in their semi-final, held firm and Telford had to be alert to keep out substitute Julia Zigiotti Olme’s long-range drive.
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Neville sent on Karen Carney with 16 minutes remaining for her final appearance before retirement, and the 31-year-old immediately helped England get onto the front foot.
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A goalmouth scramble saw both White and Kirby go close after Carney’s cutback, before Jakobsson’s weak attempt to put the game to bed on the counter-attack was held by Telford.
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England had a gilt-edged chance to extend the play-off in the 89th minute as Lindahl failed to hold a corner, but Lucy Bronze’s well-struck volley was brilliantly headed off the line by Nilla Fischer.