Barcelona and Real Madrid stars fire Spain into first-ever World Cup final

Salma Paralluelo of Spain| Phot Credit: Imago

Barcelona and Real Madrid stars fire Spain into first-ever World Cup final

Faruq Ibrahim 11:52 - 15.08.2023

Spain are into their first-ever Women's World Cup final after beating Swede. They are now set to play the winner of the clash between England and Australia.

Goals from Barcelona's Salma Paralluelo and Real Madrid's Olga Caldentey helped Spain to a 2-1 victory, booking the first of two tickets to the Women's World Cup final. 

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La Furia Roja came into the match after an impressive victory over the Netherlands in the previous round, while Sweden did the incredible by knocking out tournament favourites USA. 

The match was billed to be an exciting encounter, and it did live up to the hype, the last 20 minutes especially. 

What happened

This first-half was a cagey affair in every sense, with Spain keeping possession and Sweden attempting to hit them in transition, but neither team managed to create proper goal-scoring chances.  

The second 45' was when the game truly came to life. Peter Gerhadsson's half-time team talk seemed to have taken great effect as the Blue and Yellow began to threaten Catalina Coll's goal. 

Jorge Vilda shuffled the pack, and things soon started to look up for Spain with substitute Paralluelo pulling the strings. 

The Barcelona girl soon reaped rewards for her efforts, as her weak foot strike into the bottom right corner turned out to be the match opener. 

It was game management time for Spain, while Sweden had to chase after the goal. And in a brief moment of shambolic defending, the Scandinavian team found the equaliser from a substitute of their own, Rebecka Blomqvist.

Only 90 seconds after Sweden's equaliser, Real Madrid defender Carmona fired a stunning strike that beat Zecira Musovic to put Spain back in the lead.  

The stunning attempt proved to be the match-winner despite the Blue and Yellow's attempts at another equaliser, as Spain book their place in their first-ever World Cup final 

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