Swedish Women's National Football Team / World Championships

Sweden
Sverige

World Cup record scorer :	Lena Videkull and Victoria Sandell Svensson (6 each)
World Cup record player:	Hedvig Lindahl (20)
Rank :	4th
Organizer:	1995
Balance sheet
40 World Cup games 23 wins 5 draws 12 defeats 71:48 goals
statistics
First World Cup game Sweden 2: 3 USA Panyu ( CHN ); November 17, 1991
Biggest World Cup victory Sweden 8: 0 Japan Foshan ( CHN ); November 19, 1991
Biggest World Cup defeats Sweden 1: 4 Norway Panyu ( CHN ); November 27, 1991 Sweden 1: 4 Germany Ottawa ( CAN ); 20th June 2015
successes
World Championship
Participation in the finals	8 ( first : 1991 )
Best results	Vice World Champion 2003
Best placements in the countries that host the FIFA World Cup
(As of July 6, 2019 )

The article contains a detailed description of the Swedish national football team at World Cups . Sweden qualified for all women's World Cup finals, hosted the second World Cup and is fourth in the all-time table . The Swedes were the only team to lose a World Cup final to a golden goal . The Swedish federation is the first federation whose women's and men's national team became vice world champions without any of them being able to become world champions.

The national team at world championships

Overview

year	Host country	Participation until ...	opponent	Result	Trainer	Comments and special features
1991	People's Republic of China	3rd place match	Germany	3.	Gunilla Paijkull
1995	Sweden	Quarter finals	China	5.	Bengt Simonson	First country to host both a men's and a women's World Cup, out of the quarter-finals on the first penalty shoot-out in a women's World Cup
1999	United States	Quarter finals	Norway	6th	Marika Domanski Lyfors	Quarter-final against the defending champion
2003	United States	final	Germany	Vice world champion	Marika Domanski Lyfors	Golden Goal defeat
2007	People's Republic of China	Preliminary round	USA , Nigeria , North Korea	11.	Thomas Dennerby
2011	Germany	3rd place match	France	3.	Thomas Dennerby	Out in the semi-finals against the eventual world champion
2015	Canada	Round of 16	Germany	16.	Pia Sundhage	In the group stage , the team met the USA , Nigeria and Australia and finished third with three draws.
2019	France	3rd place match	England	Third	Peter Gerhardsson	In the qualification the team met Denmark , Ukraine , Hungary and Croatia and qualified as group winners. In France, Chile, Thailand and the USA were the group opponents.

statistics

(Information incl. 2019: eight world championships)

• not participated: never (0%)
• Qualified without qualification (as host): once (12.5%)
• athletically qualified: seven times (87.5% or 100% of the necessary attempts)
  • Preliminary round: once (12.5%; 2007)
  • Round of 16: once (12.5%, 2015)
  • Quarter-finals: twice (25%; 1995 and 1999)
  • Third: three times (37.5%; 1991 and 2011)
  • Vice world champion: once (12.5%; 2003)

The tournaments

World Cup 1991 in the People's Republic of China

For the first women's World Cup, the Swedes qualified as the best quarter-final loser in the European Championship qualification for the 1991 European Championship . But they had initially prevailed in the group stage with four wins against France and Poland . In the quarter-finals against Italy , they only achieved a 1-1 draw at home. Due to the 0-0 in the second leg, Italy was qualified for the European Championship finals due to the away goals rule . Since the other teams eliminated in the quarter-finals did not win a game and all lost at least one, Sweden was the fifth European team to qualify for the World Cup.

In the People's Republic of China , Sweden was drawn into the group with South American champions Brazil , Central and North American champions USA and Japan . On November 17, 1991, they played their first World Cup game in Panyu and lost 3-2 to the USA. Lena Videkull scored the first World Cup goal for the Swedes with the 1: 3. The second game was followed by an 8-0 win against Japan, with Videkull scoring 1-0 and the fastest goal at a women's World Cup after just 30 seconds. With a 2-0 win against Brazil in the last group game, Sweden finished second in the group and met the team of hosts and Asian champions People's Republic of China in the quarter-finals . Already in the 3rd minute of the game Pia Sundhage made it 1-0, and it stayed until the end. In the semifinals, runner-up European champions Norway were the opponents. Sweden took the lead again early, this time in the sixth minute of the game, but had to accept the equalizer with a converted penalty shortly before half-time and pay tribute to the superiority of the Norwegians in the second half, who made it into the final with three more goals. In the game for third place, the opponents were European champions Germany for the first time and with the 4-0 the Swedes secured third place.

World Cup 1995 in Sweden

Four years later, the Swedes did not have to qualify as World Cup hosts, making Sweden the first country to host both the men's (1958) and women's World Cup. Nevertheless, they took part in the qualification , as this also served as a qualification for the European Championship in 1995 . With four wins against Slovakia and Latvia , they made it to the quarter-finals. In this Denmark was defeated 3-0 after a 2-0 away defeat in the home game. That would have made them athletically qualified for the World Cup. Also in the semifinals they lost the away game against Norway 3: 4, but won the home game 4: 1. In the final in Germany against the defending champion they lost 2: 3.

At the World Cup in their own country, Tomas Brolin and Kristin Bengtsson ( Player of the Year or Player of the Year 1994 in Sweden), like Brazil and Japan four years earlier, were drawn from them, as well as opponents in the European Championship final, Germany. After a 0-1 defeat at the beginning against Brazil, they were able to return the favor with 3-2 against Germany for the European Championship final defeat. With a 2-0 win against Japan, they were tied with Germany second in the group because they had the worse goal difference. In the quarter-finals against Asian champions China, they fell 0-1 in the 29th minute, and it stayed that way until the 90th minute. In the third minute of stoppage time, Ulrika Kalte managed to equalize. Since no team was able to score in the subsequent extra time, there was the first penalty shoot-out at a women's World Cup. Here the Chinese had the slightly better goal scorers and reached the semifinals with a 4: 3. China then lost in the semifinals to Germany and also the small final to the USA. The Swedes, who were awarded the fair play prize , had to watch their neighbor Norway win the final against Germany and become the first European team to become the women's world champion. By making it to the quarter-finals, Sweden had qualified for the first women's football tournament at the 1996 Olympic Games , in which only the eight best teams from the World Cup could take part.

World Cup 1999 in the USA

For the third World Cup, UEFA scheduled separate qualifying matches for the first time and to date the only continental association. In qualifying , Sweden met Ukraine , Iceland and Spain . With six wins in six games, Sweden took first place nine points ahead of Ukraine and qualified directly for the World Cup. Ukraine then lost in the group runners-up playoffs to Germany, which also qualified.

In the USA, the Swedes lost the opening game against Asian champions China with 1: 2, with a 3: 1 against Oceania champions Australia and a 2: 0 against World Cup newcomers Ghana , but were still in second place. In the quarter-finals, they met their neighbor and defending champion Norway. After a goalless first half, they lost 3-1, which meant that the World Cup ended again in the quarter-finals. This meant that Sweden was qualified for the women's soccer tournament at the 2000 Olympic Games , in which, apart from hosts Australia, only the seven best teams from the World Cup could take part.

2003 World Cup in the USA

Scene from the final against Germany

The 2003 World Cup should actually take place again in the People's Republic of China . Because of the SARS epidemic, the tournament was moved to the USA at short notice. This was the second time that the World Cup took place in the USA. In qualifying , Sweden met Denmark , Switzerland and neighboring Finland . With five wins and one defeat, Sweden qualified as group winners for the World Cup. The second-placed Danish women with the same number of points did not manage to qualify for the World Cup in the playoffs of the group runners-up. After a 2-0 draw in France, the 1-1 draw at home was not enough.

In the USA they met the hosts USA in the first group game and lost 3-1. A 1-0 win against Asian champions North Korea followed and with a 3-0 win against African champions Nigeria , they reached the quarter-finals as second in the group. Here Brazil was the opponent and after a 2-1 win the semi-finals were reached. In this they won against Canada 2-1 and reached the final for the first time. Here Germany was the opponent who had eliminated the host and defending champion in the semi-finals. After the first 40 minutes were goalless, Hanna Ljungberg scored the 1-0 for the Swedes in the 42nd minute, which meant the break. Immediately after restarting the second half, Maren Meinert equalized. It stayed that way until the end of regular time, so that there was an extension like four years earlier. In this, Nia Künzer managed the only golden goal in a World Cup game for women, with which the German women became world champions for the first time and Germany was the first world champion for men and women. For Sweden, second place is the best placement to date, which means that Sweden was also qualified for the women's soccer tournament at the 2004 Olympic Games , in which, besides host Greece, only the two best European teams from the World Cup could take part.

World Cup 2007 in the People's Republic of China

Four years later the World Cup took place in the People's Republic of China for the second time . In the qualification , Sweden met the Czech Republic , Iceland, Belarus and Portugal . With seven wins and one draw, the Swedes prevailed confidently.

At the finals, as they did four years earlier, they faced Central and North American champions USA, African champions Nigeria and North Korea. In the opening game against Nigeria it was only enough to make it 1-1. In the second game against the USA they lost 2-0. So they had to win the last game against North Korea by three goals to reach the quarter-finals. But it was only a 2-1 victory, which meant that Sweden was eliminated in the preliminary round for the first time. With the preliminary round, Sweden also missed the direct qualification for the women's soccer tournament at the 2008 Olympic Games , in which only the three best European teams from the World Cup could participate. Since England, the third best European team, was not allowed to start, Sweden and Denmark were allowed to play for this place. Sweden prevailed 4: 2 and 3: 1 and were able to participate.

World Cup 2011 in Germany

Sofia Jakobsson , Josefine Öqvist and Madelaine Edlund after winning the game for 3rd place

The Swedes qualified for the World Cup in Germany with seven wins and one draw against the Czech Republic, Belgium , Wales and Azerbaijan . The Swedes achieved their highest international win with a 17-0 win against Azerbaijan. With the 1-0 win in the Czech Republic on the penultimate matchday, Sweden secured the ticket for the play-off round of the group winners, which was necessary this time. The first leg against Denmark was won 2: 1, as it was 1: 2 in the second leg after 90 minutes, there was an extra time. In this, Charlotte Rohlin , who had already scored the 1: 2 connection goal, secured the World Cup ticket with the goal to 2: 2.

In Germany, like four years before, Sweden was drawn into a group with the USA and North Korea. Another newcomer was Colombia , which had qualified for the World Cup for the first time and against which Sweden won the opening game 1-0. After another 1-0 against North Korea, the Swedes and the Americans were already qualified for the quarter-finals. In a direct comparison it was all about who was group winner and thus vice world champion Brazil avoided. The Swedes were able to win a World Cup game against the USA for the first time with 2-1 and met Australia in the quarter-finals , which surprisingly eliminated Norway. With 3: 1 the Swedes prevailed against the Asian champions and reached the semi-finals. Here they met the surprise team from Japan , which had eliminated hosts and defending champions Germany in the quarter-finals. Sweden took the lead in the 10th minute through Josefine Öqvist , but had to accept the equalizer eight minutes later. It stayed that way until half-time. In the second half, the Japanese were able to score two more goals, while the Swedes' attacking efforts were unsuccessful. Japan was in the final for the first time and became the first Asian team to become world champions by beating the USA on penalties . Sweden won the small final against France the day before with a remarkable goal from Marie Hammarström with 2-1, although they had to play 22 minutes after the red card for Öqvist due to an assault. By reaching the semi-finals, Sweden was also able to qualify for the women's soccer tournament at the 2012 Olympic Games , in which only the two best European teams from the World Cup and Great Britain could take part as hosts.

2015 World Cup in Canada

In the qualification the Swedes prevail again as winners. In the group, Scotland , Poland , Bosnia-Herzegovina , Northern Ireland and, for the first time, the Faroe Islands were the opponents. After nine wins, Sweden and Scotland had at least reached the playoff games of the best runners-up in the group. On the last day of the match, the Swedes beat the Scottish women 2-0 and were the last of the seven group winners to qualify for the World Cup finals. The Scottish women failed in the playoffs to the Dutch women who qualified for the World Cup for the first time.

When the groups were drawn, the Swedes were not seeded and were “drawn” to group D with the Central and North American champions USA, against whom they had to play four times in the preliminary round. Other group opponents are Australia and Africa champions Nigeria . The group was considered the most balanced of the World Cup; it was the only one with four teams that reached at least the semifinals in their last continental title bouts.

Sweden took the lead by two goals in their first game against Nigeria, twice exploiting the inexperience of the Africans at corners. Nigeria could turn the game around and in the end the Swedes had to be satisfied with the 3: 3. After a 0-0 win against the USA in their fifth clash at a World Cup and a 1-1 draw against Australia, the Swedes reached the round of 16 as fourth-best group third. Here they lost 4-1 to Germany and were eliminated. Sweden, which was the only European team to have taken part in all previous Olympic women's football tournaments, also missed direct qualification for the women's football tournament at the 2016 Olympic Games , but still had the chance to win the third European Olympic ticket in the play-offs against the three other European round of 16 losers to obtain. This was achieved in March 2016 when they were group first in this playoff.

World Cup 2019 in France

After the quarter-finals at the 2017 European Championship , Pia Sundhage gave up the post of national coach, followed by Peter Gerhardsson . In addition, record goalscorer Lotta Schelin could no longer be used due to a neck injury suffered in June 2017, which ultimately caused her to end her career in August 2018.

The Swedes European Vice-Champions Denmark , Ukraine , Hungary and Croatia were drawn as qualifying opponents. The Swedes started with a 2-0 win in Croatia and then did not have to play for their first home game against Denmark because the Danish association canceled the game because the Danish players did not want to play due to differences of opinion with the association. The UEFA finally scored the game 3-0 for Sweden. The Swedes won the next three games by conceding just one goal, but then lost 1-0 in Ukraine, against an Eastern European team for the first time. Although they then won the second leg against the Ukrainians, the defeat in the first leg meant that the last game in Denmark mattered: with a draw or a win, Sweden would qualify directly for the World Cup finals, with a defeat the Danes would have for the first time since 2007 reached the finals again and Sweden would have to enter the playoffs of the best runners-up in the group for the last European starting place. With a goal from Sofia Jakobsson immediately after half-time, Sweden won 1-0 and qualified for the finals in France.

In France, Chile and Thailand were the group opponents for the first time, and the USA for the sixth time in the preliminary round. The Swedes started with a 2-0 win against Chile, but had to wait until the 83rd minute for the first goal. The first goal in the 5-1 win against Thailand, which was scored in the 6th minute, fell faster. They fell behind even faster against the USA in the third minute. The last goal of the 2-0 defeat came from a shot deflected by Jonna Andersson . As second in the group, the Swedes met Canada and reached the quarter-finals with a 1-0 win against Germany. After 24 years without a competitive win against Germany, they made it into the semi-finals against European champions Netherlands with a 2-1 deficit after a 0-1 deficit. In the semi-finals, the Swedes lost 1-0 after extra time. The final game for 3rd place was then won against England 2-1.

Games

Sweden has played 40 World Cup games so far, only three-time world champions USA (50) and two-time world champions Germany (44) have played more games. The Swedes won 23 games, lost twelve and five ended in a draw. Games went into overtime three times because a winner had to be determined. One was lost to a golden goal , one on penalties and one "normal". Sweden took part in the opening game once: in 1995 as the host. Sweden played twice against the hosts: 1991 and 2003. Sweden played five times against the eventual world champions (1991 and 2015 in the preliminary round, 2003 in the final and 2011 in the semifinals) and twice against the defending champions. Sweden played the most frequently (6 times) against the USA (one win, one draw, four losses). Seven games were the first so far against the respective opponents.

So far Sweden has played against teams from all six confederations and also against the champions of all confederations (22 times up to and including 2019 and thus more often than any other team, most often (5 times each) against the Asian , CONCACAF and European champions ).

Most games played the record goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl (20). The most goals (6) were scored by Lena Videkull and Victoria Sandell Svensson .

All World Cup games
No.	date	Result	venue	opponent	occasion	Remarks
1	11/17/1991	2: 3	Panyu ( CHN )	United States	Preliminary round	First game against a reigning CONCACAF champion
2	11/19/1991	8-0	Foshan ( CHN )	Japan	Preliminary round
3	11/21/1991	2-0	Panyu ( CHN )	Brazil	Preliminary round	1st game against Brazil 1st game against a reigning South American champion
4th	11/24/1991	1-0	Guangzhou ( CHN )	China, PR	Quarter finals
5	11/27/1991	1: 4	Panyu ( CHN )	Norway	Semifinals
6th	11/29/1991	4-0	Guangzhou ( CHN )	Germany	3rd place match	1st game against Germany
7th	06/05/1995	0: 1	Helsingborg	Brazil	Preliminary round
8th	06/07/1995	3: 2	Helsingborg	Germany	Preliminary round
9	06/09/1995	2-0	Västerås	Japan	Preliminary round
10	06/13/1995	1: 1 a.d.	Helsingborg	China, PR	Quarter finals	3: 4 i. E.
11	06/19/1999	1: 2	San Jose ( USA )	China, PR	Preliminary round
12	06/23/1999	3: 1	Washington, DC ( USA )	Australia	Preliminary round
13	06/26/1999	2-0	Chicago ( USA )	Ghana	Preliminary round	Only game against Ghana so far
14th	06/30/1999	1: 3	San Jose ( USA )	Norway (TV)	Quarter finals
15th	09/21/2003	1: 3	Washington, DC ( USA )	United States (TV)	Preliminary round
16	09/25/2003	1-0	Philadelphia ( USA )	North Korea	Preliminary round
17th	09/28/2003	3-0	Columbus ( USA )	Nigeria	Preliminary round	1st game against Nigeria 1st game against a reigning African champion
18th	10/01/2003	2: 1	Foxborough ( USA )	Brazil	Quarter finals
19th	05/10/2003	2: 1	Portland ( USA )	Canada	Semifinals
20th	10/12/2003	1: 2 a.d.	Carson ( USA )	Germany	final	Loss by 1st golden goal at a women's World Cup
21st	09/11/2007	1: 1	Chengdu ( CHN )	Nigeria	Preliminary round
22nd	09/14/2007	0: 2	Chengdu ( CHN )	United States	Preliminary round
23	09/18/2007	2: 1	Tianjin ( CHN )	North Korea	Preliminary round
24	06/28/2011	1-0	Leverkusen ( DEU )	Colombia	Preliminary round	Only game against Colombia so far
25th	07/02/2011	1-0	Augsburg ( DEU )	North Korea	Preliminary round
26th	07/06/2011	2: 1	Wolfsburg ( DEU )	United States	Preliminary round
27	07/10/2011	3: 1	Augsburg ( DEU )	Australia	Quarter finals
28	07/13/2011	1: 3	Frankfurt am Main ( DEU )	Japan	Semifinals
29	07/16/2011	2: 1	Sinsheim ( DEU )	France	3rd place match
30th	06/08/2015	3: 3	Winnipeg ( CAN )	Nigeria	Preliminary round
31	06/12/2015	0-0	Winnipeg ( CAN )	United States	Preliminary round
32	06/16/2015	1: 1	Edmonton ( CAN )	Australia	Preliminary round
33	06/20/2015	1: 4	Ottawa ( CAN )	Germany	Round of 16	Therese Sjögran represents the with her 214th and final international match European record of Birgit Prinz one.
34	06/11/2019	2-0	Rennes ( FRA )	Chile	Preliminary round	First game against Chile
35	June 16, 2019	5: 1	Nice ( FRA )	Thailand	Preliminary round	First game against Thailand
36	06/20/2019	0: 2	Le Havre ( FRA )	USA (TV)	Preliminary round
37	06/24/2019	1-0	Paris ( FRA )	Canada	Round of 16
38	06/29/2019	2: 1	Rennes ( FRA )	Germany	Quarter finals
39	07/03/2019	0: 1 a.d.	Lyon ( FRA )	Netherlands	Semifinals
40	07/06/2019	2: 1	Nice ( FRA )	England	3rd place match

Note: Teams in bold were or are champions of their confederation at the time of the match.

The Swedish team achieved their highest victories against the following countries in World Cup tournaments:

•  Brazil 2-0 (1991, preliminary round)
•  Chile 2-0 (2019, preliminary round) - first game against Chile
•  Germany 4-0 (1991, game for 3rd place) - first game against Germany
•  Ghana 2-0 (1999, preliminary round) - only game against Ghana
•  Japan 8-0 (1991, preliminary round)
•  Colombia 1-0 (2011, preliminary round) - only game against Colombia
•  Nigeria 3-1 (2003, preliminary round)
•  North Korea 1-0 (2003 and 2011, preliminary round), 2-1 (2007, preliminary round) - also a 1-0 in a friendly match
•  Thailand 5: 1 (2019, preliminary round) - first game against Thailand

Only against the eventual world champions Japan did the Swedish team conceded one of their biggest defeats in a World Cup tournament: 1: 3 (2011, semi-finals) - and a 1: 3 at the Algarve Cup 2014

Records

Players

• Lena Videkull scored the fastest world championship goal after 30 seconds in the game against Japan in 1991

team

• Sweden ended the longest series of preliminary round games without a defeat: The USA had not lost in 17 of 17 games from 1991 to 2011. The series ended with the last preliminary round match at the 2011 World Cup, which the USA lost 2-1 to Sweden. It was the USA's first defeat in a World Cup preliminary round match.
• The most common quarter-final pairing (2 ×) was Sweden against China (1991 and 1995)
• The most common final and preliminary round pairing: 6 × Sweden against USA (1991, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019)
• Biggest win in a tournament: Sweden 8-0 Japan in the 1991 preliminary round in China
• Biggest win in the game for 3rd place: Sweden 4-0 Germany, 1991 in China
• The longest draw streak: Sweden with three games in 2015

Trainers

• First female coach at a Women's World Cup: Gunilla Paijkull 1991
• Most games as a female trainer until 2015: Marika Domanski Lyfors 14 (10 with Sweden and 4 with China), now Silvia Neid at 17
• Most trained countries: 2, Thomas Dennerby (Sweden 2007, 2011 and Nigeria 2019), Marika Domanski Lyfors (Sweden 1999 and 2003 and China 2007) and Pia Sundhage (USA 2011 and Sweden 2015) and Even Pellerud (Norway 1991 and 1995; Canada 2003 and 2007), John Herdman (New Zealand 2007 and 2011 and Canada 2015) and Martina Voss-Tecklenburg (Switzerland 2015 and Germany 2019), Tom Sermanni (Australia 1995, 2007, 2011 and New Zealand 2019) and Kenneth Heiner-Møller (Denmark 2007 and Canada 2019)

Negative records

• The first and only golden goal in the final at a women's World Cup had to accept Sweden against Germany through Nia Künzer in the final of the 2003 World Cup to 2-1 for Germany.
• Sweden are the only team that failed to win three times in extra time (once by a golden goal, once on penalties, once by a goal)
• Highest round of 16 defeats: Sweden - Germany 1: 4 and South Korea - France 0: 3, both in 2015 and Nigeria - Germany 0: 3 and Cameroon - England 0: 3, both in 2019
• Sweden scored the fewest goals on the way to the final: 2003 - 1.9 / game.
• Josefine Öqvist is the first player to receive a red card in the game for third place .

See also

• Swedish National Football Team / World Championships

Web links

• FIFA Women's World Cup ^TM

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Brazil's men's national team was both world champion and runner-up, the Brazilian women only runner-up. The men and women of the German Football Association were both world champions and vice world champions. In the meantime, the Dutch association has also become vice world champion for men (1974, 1978 and 2010) and women (2019).
2. ↑ The placements from 5th place onwards were determined by FIFA without any placement games, see Technical Report FIFA Women's World Cup Canada 2015 ™ , p. 159.
3. ↑ Sweden - USA 2: 3 (0: 1)
4. ↑ Sweden - China PR 1: 1 n.V. (1: 1, 0: 1) 3: 4 i. E.
5. ↑ Because England, as the seventh best team, was not allowed to start at the Olympic Games, Brazil was also able to participate as the ninth best team.
6. ↑ fifa.com: "Olympic Football Tournament Atlanta Women 1996"
7. ↑ fifa.com: "Hammarstrom (2011: SWE vs. FRA)"
8. ↑ framba.de: "Women's World Cup 2015: group draw degenerates into a farce" ( Memento from December 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
9. ↑ dbu.dk: Spillernes afbud fører til aflysning af VM-kvalkamp (Danish)
10. ↑ svenskfotboll.se: UEFA-beslut i Danmarksfrågan (Swedish)