Spain eyeing first Women's World Cup title after defeating Sweden 2-1 in semis

Spain will be eyeing their first Womens World Cup title as they entered the final after Olga Carmonas goal in the 89th minute lifted La Roja to a 21 victory over Sweden in the Tuesday semifinalSpain which overcame last years near mutiny by its players against coach Jorge Vilda will play the winner between cohost Australia and England on Sunday in the final in SydneyThe controversy began when 15 players last September signed a letter complaining about Vilda and the conditions for the national team Three of those players were named to the World Cup squad and Vilda a day before the semifinal praised the Spanish federation for its support of him and the womens programNow La Roja have a chance to become a firsttime World Cup champion By defeating the secondranked Sweden Spain ranked seventh is now the highestranked team remaining in the tournamentldquoThis is a historic dayrdquo said Vilda ldquoWere in the final thats what we wantedrdquoSweden has now lost in four of five semifinals and will play for a fourth thirdplace finishCarmonas goal capped a flurry of late scoring that saw Sweden tie the game then Spain win it 90 seconds later on the surprise scoreSalma Paralluelo the 19yearold supersub who also scored the gamewinner in Spains 21 extratime quarterfinals victory over the Netherlands scored in the 81st minute to break a scoreless game She gestured for the crowd to cheer and the crowd thought it was celebrating Spains deciderBut the celebration was brief Rebecca Blomqvist tied it for Sweden in the 88th Then just 90 seconds later Carmona beat Sweden goalkeeper Zecira Musovic with the gamewinnerldquoIt was a very tough game It couldve been difficult to recover from their goal but weve shown that this team can deal with everythingrdquo said ParallueloldquoWe deserved this We took this little step and now we need that final pushThe Swedes have never won a World Cup but theyve come close they were the 2003 runnerup and have finished third three times Sweden won silver medals at the Tokyo Olympics two years ago and at the 2016 Games in BrazilAlso ReadOn the rise Five of the Womenrsquos World Cuprsquos biggest breakout starsSpain is making only its third overall World Cup appearance Four years ago La Roja advanced to the knockout round but lost to eventual champions the United StatesldquoNow its the final I think we have to do what weve done in every match said ParallueloWeve overcome every challenge and now we face the ultimate challenge the big onerdquoThe Swedes swept their opponents in the group stage before knocking out twotime reigning champion the United States on a penalty shootout after a scoreless drawSweden then got by previously unbeaten Japan 21 in the quarterfinalsSpain fell to second in its group behind a blowout loss to Japan but rallied to beat Switzerland 51 and the Netherlands 21 to reach the semifinals It was La Rojas first appearance in a major semifinal since the 1997 European ChampionshipsSpains twotime Ballon dOr winner Alexia Putellas made her third start of the World Cup Putellas ruptured her ACL last summer and has been working her way back to full fitness She came off the bench in the teams last two matchesPutellas who replaced Esther Gonzalez in the starting 11 was subbed off in the 57th minute for 19yearold Paralluelo who scored in extra time for Spain in the victory over the NetherlandsSpain dominated possession and had the better chances in the first half Defender Olga Carmonas blast from the top of the box but the low shot went just wide But Swedens defense which had allowed just two goals in the tournament heldPutellas nutmegged Filippa Angeldal before delivering a cross in the 35th minute but Magdelena Eriksson was there to clear it awaySpain goalkeeper Cata Coll dove to save Fridolina Rolfos shot late in the half then punched the ball away on a corner kick to keep the game scoreless at the halfSweden had energy to start the second half but Spain still had chances Paralleulos header in the 63rd minute sailed over the goalAlba Redondo was on the ground in front of the goal but got a foot on the ball and appeared to score in the 71st minute but she was just wide and the ball was caught up in the side nettingThere were a few tense moments when Paralluelos goal was checked by video review but the goal was awardedThere were 43217 fans on hand for the match at Aucklands Eden ParkWith AP inputs