Sweden ride on their luck to beat Switzerland 1-0 and progress to quarterfinals

It was nothing but luck that helped Sweden overcome Switzerland 1-0 in an evenly-poised match in St. Petersburg today.

With the two teams evenly matched most of the time, Emil Forsberg’s deflected strike was what helped Sweden progress to the quarterfinals for only the second time since 1958.

A tight last 16 match was opened up by Forsberg in the 66th minute, when he found some space on the edge of the area and fired in a low drive which Yann Sommer would have fielded, but Manuel Akanji deflected it into the other side of the goal.

Switzerland pushed for an equaliser, but Sweden closed ranks at the back, keeping the sixth-ranked side in the world at bay to record their third clean sheet of the tournament.

Sweden were given a late penalty when Michael Lang was sent off for bringing down Martin Olsson when through on goal, but after consulting VAR the foul was judged to be outside the area and a free-kick awarded instead.

Sweden will face either England or Colombia in a July 7 quarterfinal in Samara.