Sweden stuns USWNT on penalties for a place in the quarterfinals.

It was joy for the Swedes after the penalty shootout.

The USWNT tasted defeat served by Sweden in a thrilling penalty shootout which ended 5-4 in favor of Sweden.

The ghost of the 2018 Men’s World Cup in Russia where Germany were eliminated by South Korea came haunting their women’s team in this year’s Women’s World Cup which saw Germany exiting the tournament after 1-1 draw with South Korea in Group H.

Two-time champions Germany crashed out of the group stages of the Women’s World Cup after a 1-1 draw with South Korea.

Reggae girls Jamaica eliminated Brazil from the group stage of the tournament.

USA eliminated by their 2021 Tokyo Olympics nemesis Sweden in a penalty shootout.

Whoever is writing these incredible storylines deserves applause.

This World Cup keeps becoming a nightmare for most of the giants tipped to win the trophy.

The United States team made it out of their group by the skin of their teeth with a performance not so encouraging compared to their previous performances in previous tournaments. Heading into the knockout stages of the tournament, they had a lot of work to do especially when they were paired with Sweden whom they couldn’t overcome during the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo. Sweden walked away with a convincing 3-0 victory and that was the last encounter between these two countries in women’s soccer.

Today was yet another encounter of either a redemption or repetition. The Americans had the opportunity to rewrite history and also redeem itself as one of the best in women’s soccer but Sweden proved to be a Herculean task for the USWNT to overcome.

Sweden and the USA have met in six of the past eight World Cups, but never previously in the knockout rounds. They are the third- and first-ranked teams in the world, respectively and for the first- ranked team in Women’s soccer, this is a massive failure.

Prior to the game, the coach of the USWNT said this: “For me, we accept the fact that we could have been out in the ball hit post on the other side, too,” Andonovski said on Saturday. “The fact that we’re in, we were lucky in the moment and we’re moving on. So, now we do everything possible so that that same situation doesn’t happen

USA forward Alex Morgan spoke about how well they know the Sweden team. “We know them very well,” USA forward Alex Morgan said. “We know that [Sunday] is going to be a challenging game and we hope that knowing them so well will help us.”

So the big question is, what happened to knowing them very well?

After 90 minutes of searching for a win, nobody could find the back of the net and that ushered the game into extra time. After 120 minutes, it was still goalless and the most feared thing in soccer; penalties was the only option.

It became the only way to decide who should go through and at the end of it, Sweden won 5-4 which saw the USWNT saying goodbye to the tournament and their 2023 World Cup dreams.