Key Factors
- Sweden’s goalkeeper Zećira Mušović was awarded participant of the match when her crew beat the USA.
- Sweden advance to the Quarterfinals of the Girls’s World Cup.
- At a post-match press convention, Mušović was requested if she is aware of Swedish former footballer Zlatan Ibrahimović.
Swedish goalkeeper Zećira Mušović most likely thought the usual Girls’s World Cup post-match press convention would concentrate on her on-pitch efficiency, after her crew defeated the USA in Sunday night time’s tense Spherical of 16 match.
Mušović was awarded participant of the match for a sequence of spectacular saves that saved the rating at 0-0 by additional time, earlier than Sweden received 5-4 on penalties to knock out the reigning champions.
So journalists had been stunned and Mušović appeared aggravated when a journalist requested her about one other well-known Swede.
A journalist requested her if she is aware of Zlatan Ibrahimović, a high-profile footballer who had a 20-year profession for Sweden’s males’s crew.
The reporter stated each gamers come from Bosnian heritage.
She shook her head and regarded across the room earlier than replying: “In Sweden, everybody is aware of who Zlatan is.”
The reporter additionally requested Mušović what she stated to the US gamers through the penalty shoot-out.
“I used to be sat two seats alongside from the journalist who requested (the Zlatan query) and couldn’t consider what I heard,” BBC journalist Emma Smith wrote on X, the platform previously often known as Twitter.
“Totally disrespectful after an unbelievable efficiency and a exceptional match/consequence Additionally, we solely obtained three inquiries to Mušović on the press convention. One among them was this bollocks.”
Mušović’s teammates heaped reward on her after the match
“I’ve no phrases for her, she was completely unbelievable. It wasn’t one world-class save, it was 10,” winger Fridolina Rolfö stated.
“She deserves the whole lot she obtained to expertise at present and we’re so grateful to have her.”
United States’ Sophia Smith has her shot at objective blocked by Sweden’s goalkeeper Zećira Mušović through the Girls’s World Cup Spherical of 16 match between Sweden and the US. Supply: AAP / Scott Barbour
Veteran midfielder Kosovare Asllani described Mušović as a hero.
“Oh my god, wow, magic. She was an excellent lady on the finish,” she stated.
It is the primary time the US have been crushed earlier than the Semifinals stage of a World Cup, whereas Sweden advance to face Japan in a Quarterfinal in Auckland on Friday.
“We all know what we’re able to,” Mušović stated.
“We knew that we had been going through a very good crew and wanted to place in a superb efficiency, which we did.
“I am extraordinarily pleased with the ladies and what we managed to do tonight as a result of many individuals on the market did not assume that was doable.”
US coach Vlatko Andonovski and his top-ranked crew had come beneath intense scrutiny after lacklustre performances within the group stage however got here out swinging towards world quantity three Sweden.
The Individuals dominated possession and had 22 photographs at objective, together with 11 heading in the right direction, however Andonovski’s “warriors” couldn’t discover a well beyond the impressed Mušović.
– With extra reporting by AAP.