Germany and China booked the first two spots in the quarter-finals of the Women’s World Cup with comfortable victories over Sweden and Cameroon respectively.
2003 and 2007 champions Germany cantered past Sweden 4-1 in Ottawa, while China won 1-0 in Edmonton to send the last African challenger Cameroon home.
Anja Mittag set Germany on their way on 24 minutes with a solo run for her fifth goal in four matches before Celia Sasic added a second from the spot after a foul on Mittag by Amanda Ilestedt.
Sofia Jakobsson nearly pulled one back for the Swedes seconds before half-time, but could not manage to keep her header down and Sasic grabbed her second of the game with 12 minutes to go with a diving header – her fifth of the tournament after Simone Laudehr’s initial effort had come back off the post.
Defender Linda Sembrant did get one back for Sweden on 82, but Dzsenifer Marozsan added another for the Germans two minutes from time to set up a clash with either France or South Korea for a place in the semi-finals.
Coach Silvia Neid described the victory as “a very important game, maybe a key match” in the tournament.
“We haven’t had games of this quality in the World Cup apart from Norway,” said Neid, whose group had included minnows Ivory Coast and Thailand.
In an overcast Edmonton, Wang Shanshan’s first-half goal was enough for China to set up a meeting with either the United States or Colombia.
China coach Hao Wei had a touchline ban and was forced to watch the game from the stands, but his side closed down the game early after Wang Shanshan’s tidy finish on 12 minutes.
“Today all the players were wonderful, they put on a spectacular performance, demonstrating amazing resilience and bravery,” said assistant coach Chang Wei-Wei.
“They fought like warriors for over 90 minutes. I want to thank them for their hard work.”
“The Chinese deserved their victory we can just say bravo. Their team is very complete,” said Cameroon coach Enow Ngachu, whose side were just the second from Africa to reach the knockout rounds after Nigeria in 1999.
“They don’t score many goals but they defend very well. We knew that if we conceded a goal it would be very difficult for us.”