Canada won the first-ever gold medal in women’s football at the Olympic Games thanks to the hero of the match – Stephanie Labbe her shoot-out helped the team win. This was Canada’s first Olympic final appearance and Stephanie Labbe’s penalty shout-out saved gold following a 1-1 tie with Sweden.
In the first half, Stina Blackstenius put the Scandinavians ahead but with a penalty kick after halftime, Jessie Fleming equalized after VAR intervened for a foul on Christine Sinclair. Canada’s last-ditch hero was Kadeisha Buchanan, who cleared the ball off the line to send the game to overtime before Labbe’s two saves secured a 3-2 victory in the shootout.
Kosovare Asllani set up Sweden’s opener, she confiscated Canada midfielder Quinn before passing to Blackstenius, whose first-time effort was deflected into the net by a slight deflection.
Sinclair nipped in front of Amanda Ilestedt, and Fleming leveled things up with a low spot-kick after consulting VAR. Sinclair has 187 goals for Canada and is the all-time leading goalscorer in international football.
In the penultimate minute, Asllani had a glorious opportunity to seal gold when her effort was cleared off the line by Buchanan. She sent the final to extra-time and then penalties, with neither side finding a winner in the extra 30 minutes.
Swedish veteran Caroline Seger had the chance to secure victory with the decisive strike in spite of Labbe’s save against Anna Anvegard. But she blasted over, sending the shoot-out to sudden death after Deanne Rose found the top right corner.
Setting up Julia Gross for victory, Jonna Andersson came up with another stop for Labbe, and she made no mistake, finding the bottom left corner to seal gold after consecutive bronzes in 2012 and 2016.
Watch football highlights of Canada vs Sweden Tokyo Olympics football match in which Canada won gold.
