Olympic Games 2020: Canada wins women’s football tournament at the end of the suspense

LCanada won the gold medal women’s football tournament at the Tokyo Olympics on Friday, to the detriment of Sweden, which had to settle for the silver medal. The decision was made on penalties (2-3). The two teams had not managed to decide either at the end of regulation time, or after extra time (1-1).

The Swedes were the first to open the scoring via Stinia Blackstenius in the 34th minute of play. The Canadians reacted in the second half, in the 67th, with a Jessie Fleming goal from the penalty spot. This parity score pushed the two teams to play extra time and then to decide on penalties. During this session, no less than 12 shooters set out to force the decision. Finally, the Canadians managed to make the difference after the suspense and win the Olympic title.

This is the first time that the women’s Olympic title has been decided at the end of the penalty shoot-out.

In 2016, the Swedes had already had to settle for money after losing in the final to Germany, who failed to advance to the finals this time around. Canada has won bronze in the last two editions.

The game was originally scheduled to be played at 11:00 am local time (4:00 am Belgian time), but it ended up being played at 9:00 pm (2:00 pm Belgian time) in Yokohama, with both teams complaining that they had to play in the morning heat. This gap did not pose a logistical problem, the Games taking place without spectators.

The United States beat Australia 4-3 for the bronze medal on Thursday.