Sweden beat the United States 5-4 on penalties to condemn the defending champions to their earliest Women’s World Cup exit on Sunday after the teams were locked at 0-0 at the end of extra time.

Lina Hurtig struck the winning spot-kick at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium to cap a madcap shootout in the round of 16 clash, though U.S. goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher parried the ball on the line and the result needed to be confirmed by VAR.

Sweden head into a quarter-final against Japan in Auckland on Friday but it was the first exit before the semi-finals in nine World Cups for the Americans, who were bidding for an unprecedented third consecutive title.

Gloomy U.S. coach Vlatko Andonovski was not convinced Hurtig’s spot-kick had crossed the line

Jill Roord scored her fourth goal of the tournament as the Netherlands marched into the quarter-finals of the Women’s World Cup with a 2-0 win over South Africa at Sydney Football Stadium on Sunday.

Roord’s header gave her side an early lead and Lineth Beerensteyn added the second goal courtesy of a goalkeeping error in the second half to secure the Dutch a date with Spain in Wellington on Friday.

The 54th-ranked African champions never gave up the fight in their first appearance in the World Cup knockout stage and were always a threat on the break through their lone striker Thembi Kgatlana.

The ninth Women’s World Cup became the best attended on Sunday, when 27,706 fans packed into Melbourne Rectangular Stadium for Sweden’s penalty shootout win over the United States in the last 16 to take the tournament total to 1,367,037.

The previous record was the 1,353,506 that attended the 24-team tournament in Canada in 2015, although double-header matches were included in that schedule.

The last Women’s World Cup in France four years ago attracted 1,131,312 fans to 52 individual matches with an average crowd of 21,756.

Reuters