Spain entered the final of the Women's World Cup championship on Tuesday after posting a 2-1 victory over Sweden in a thrilling semifinal match in Auckland.
Spain, which is the highest-ranked team left in the tournament, will meet in the final the winner of the semifinal match between Australia and England. La Roja are ranked seventh in the world by FIFA, and their victory over second-ranked Sweden gives them a chance to lift the world cup for the first time.
Captain Olga Carmona scored Spain's second goal in the dying moments of the game after Sweden equalized late in the second half. Earlier, teenage player Salm Paralluelo scored Spain's first goal in the 81st minute, putting La Roja on the front foot. But minutes later, Rebecka Blomqvist levelled the score for Sweden.
"This is a historic day ... We're in the final, that's what we wanted," said Spain's coach Jorge Vilda. "We're extremely happy. If you go to the dressing room now, it's incredible how they're celebrating," Vilda added, according to Reuters.
"We have the final in front of us, we're going to Sydney tomorrow and we want to win."
"It was a very tough game. It could've been difficult to recover from their goal, but we've shown that his team can deal with everything .... We deserved this. We took this little step, and now we need that final push," said 19-year-old supersub Salma Paralluelo, who scored first for Spain on Tuesday. "Now it's the final. I think we have to do what we've done in every match ... We've overcome every challenge and now we face the ultimate challenge, the big one," she added, according to Euronews.
Sweden have played the semifinal five times so far but have lost four of the ties. They have never won the world cup though finished third three times. Sweden were the runner-up in 2003 and they also won silver medals at the Tokyo and Brazil Olympic games.
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