Sweden at the FIFA Women's World Cup

However, due to the 0–0 draw in the second leg, Italy were qualified for the European Championship finals by the away goals rule.

In the People's Republic of China, Sweden also qualified alongside Brazil, United States and Japan.

Since no team could score a goal in the subsequent extra time, there was the first penalty shootout at a women's World Cup.

For the third World Cup, UEFA then set up separate qualifiers for the first time and to date the only continental association.

With six wins in six games Sweden took first place with nine points ahead of Ukraine and qualified directly for the World Cup.

In the US, the Swedes lost the opening match against China with 1: 2, with a 3–1 draw against Australia and a 2: 0 against World Cup newcomer Ghana but was still ranked second.

The second placed and tied Danes did not manage to qualify for the World Cup in the playoffs of the runners-up.

In the preliminaries, Sweden also failed to qualify for the women's football tournament at the 2008 Olympic Games, which was only attended by the three best European teams from the World Cup.

A new addition was Colombia, which had qualified for the World Cup for the first time and Sweden beat the opening 1–0 win.

The Swedes were able to win a World Cup match against the US for the first time with a score of 2: 1 in the quarter-finals Australia, which surprisingly eliminated Norway.

Here they met the surprise team Japan, which had eliminated hosts and two-times defending champions Germany in the quarterfinals.

Japan was thus the first time in the final and was by a victory against the US in the penalty shootout as the first Asian team football world champion.

Sweden won the small final against France the day before with a remarkable goal by Marie Hammarström even though she lost 22 minutes to Öqvist after Red Card.

[10] With the semi-final draw Sweden could also qualify for the Women's Football Tournament at the Olympic Games, in which only the two best European teams of the World Cup and United Kingdom could participate as hosts.

In the group were Scotland, Poland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Northern Ireland and for the first time the Faroe Islands the opponents.

On the last day of the match, the Swedes won 2–0 against the Scottish side and were thus the last of the seven group winners to qualify directly for the World Cup finals.

The group was considered the most balanced of the World Cup; it was the only one with four teams that at least reached the semi-finals in their last continental championship fights.

After the quarter-finals at European Championship 2017 Pia Sundhage had given up the post of national coach, followed by Peter Gerhardsson.

In addition, record goalscorer Lotta Schelin could no longer be used due to a neck injury sustained in June 2017, ultimately prompting her to end her career in August 2018.

The next three games won the Swedes with just one goal, but then lost in Ukraine with 0: 1, and thus for the first time against an Eastern European team.

Although they then won the second leg against the Ukrainians, but by the defeat in the first leg, it was the last game in Denmark: with a draw or a victory, Sweden would qualify directly for the World Cup finals, in a defeat, the Danes would first time Since 2007, the finals have been reached again and Sweden should be in the playoffs of the best runners-up for the last European starting place.

A goal from Sofia Jakobsson immediately after the half-time break gave Sweden a 1–0 win and qualified for the finals in France.

After 24 years without a competitive victory against Germany succeeded with a 2–1 to 0–1 deficit to the semi-finals against European champions Netherlands.