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Belgium's game plan of containing the Swedes and hitting them on
the break looked like it would see them force extra time, but
the last of Sweden's 34 attempts on goal was forced home by
Sembrant to send the Belgians crashing out.
The Swedes kept Belgium pinned back for most of the first half
and should have taken the lead when Stina Blackstenius slotted
the ball home in the 25th minute. However, a VAR review showed
that she was just offside when Kosovare Asllani passed her the
ball and the goal was chalked off.
The second half was almost identical with the Swedes pouring
forward and the Belgium defence standing resolute, and
goalkeeper Nicky Evrard pulled off a brilliant reflex save to
deny Blackstenius in the 73rd minute.
Despite tiring as the game wore on, Belgium continued to
threaten on the break and Sembrant and her defensive colleagues
had to be on their toes, and they had no interest in playing
another 30 minutes.
"We didn't want extra time," Sembrant told broadcaster SVT. "We
really pressed them in the second half, we wore them down more
and more. The only thing that was missing was the goal."
It finally came in the second minute of stoppage time as Sweden
won a corner from the left and Asllani fired it in towards the
centre of the goal and it dropped at the far post to Nathalie
Bjorn.
Her initial shot was blocked but Sembrant, who missed two of the
group games through injury, reacted quickest to rifle the ball
home to send the Swedes, who lost the final at last year's Tokyo
Olympics to Canada on penalties, through to face the hosts in
the last four.
(Reporting by Philip O'Connor; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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