Women's World Cup 2019: Sweden defeats Chile after weather delay

Kosovare Asllani and Madelen Janogy downed a resilient Chile as Sweden claimed a 2-0 win in a Women's World Cup game temporarily halted due to severe weather.

Ranked 30 places below their opponents, World Cup debutants Chile were camped in their own half for much of Tuesday's Group F encounter.

Although the impressive Christiane Endler had to make a wonderful save to deny Linda Sembrant, Sweden failed to make their dominance count before play was halted in the 72nd minute due to stormy conditions in Rennes.

The break served Sweden well, however, and it finally found a breakthrough when Asllani lifted a cute finish over Endler, with substitute Janogy drilling in an exceptional second to get their campaign off to a bright start.

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Sembrant's powerful header looked set to open the scoring in the 26th minute, but Endler stooped to her left to make a fantastic save on the line.

Endler was beaten when Stina Blackstenius latched onto Fridolina Rolfo's low cross, but Chile's goalkeeper did enough to put off the striker, who sliced over.

Sweden carried on where they left off after the interval as Rolfo's crisp strike drew Endler into another fine stop.

With torrential rain swiftly being joined by thunderstorms in the vicinity of Roazhon Park, play was halted with just under 20 minutes to go.

And after a 43-minute stoppage, Sweden came out with renewed vigour – Asllani on hand to latch onto a loose ball in the area and prod home with seven minutes remaining.

Francisca Lara scooped over in added time as Chile pressed for an equalizer, but it was Sweden who had the final say when Janogy hammered in a brilliant strike to cap off the win.

Key Opta Facts

- Since Brazil won its first ever Women's World Cup match back in 1991, beating Japan 1-0, each of the other four sides from South America playing in their first such match have all lost without scoring (Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador and Chile).

- Sweden has won a Women's World Cup match for the first time since July 2011 (2-1 vs. France in a third-place playoff game), ending a run of four such games without a win (D3 L1).

- Sweden's starting XI in their narrow victory over Chile had an average age of 29 years and 138 days, the oldest they have named in a Women's World Cup match in what was their 34th game at the tournament.

- Asllani’s opener for Sweden was its 20th attempt of the match and just their fifth on target; it was her 33rd strike for her country, but her first World Cup goal.

- Janogy has scored in both of her last two appearances for the Swedish national side having not scored in any of her first three games at senior international level.