Stina Blackstenius provided an assist as Sweden edged Australia in the Women's World Cup third-place play-off.
Our forward earned her seventh consecutive start for the Swedes alongside centre-back Amanda Ilestedt, as they looked to bounce back from their crushing semi-final defeat to Spain.
Their 2-0 victory over the co-hosts in Brisbane secured back-to-back third-place finishes in the World Cup, after beating England 2-1 in 2015's play-off.
The Matildas had one less day to recover from their semi-final loss to England but Steph Catley and Caitlin Foord took to the field at the Suncorp Stadium determined to close out a fantastic tournament on a high.
Blackstenius was involved early on, forcing a good save from West Ham's Mackenzie Arnold. Our striker's dangerous presence in the penalty area was instrumental in breaking the deadlock after Claire Hunt was judged to have tripped her on the half-hour mark.
Fridolina Rolfo converted the subsequent spot-kick and from then on, the Swede's lead never looked under threat.
In the second half, Blackstenius held the ball up in the area again and waited to play a perfect ball to Kosovare Asllani, who struck beautifully past Arnold to double Sweden's advantage.
Lina Hurtig was then subbed on for goalscorer Asllani in the 67th minute and the two-goal cushion remained in tact.
Catley and Foord's seventh full game for the Matildas meant that both of our players played every available minute of this year's competition.
Attention now turns to Sydney for tomorrow's final as Alessia Russo and Lotte Wubben-Moy's England side take on Spain for a place in footballing history.
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.