Germany won their first ever Olympic gold medal in women’s football on Friday when they turned in a superior second half performance to beat Sweden 2-1 at the Maracana stadium in Rio.

The no.2 ranked Germans scored two goals in the second half, and although the Swedes got a goal back they could not snatch an equaliser that would have taken the game into extra-time.

The win was Germany’s sixth unbeaten match in the tournament and lifts them into an elite group alongside the United States and Norway as the only teams to win both the Women’s World Cup and the Olympics.

Germany failed to qualify for the Olympics in 2012 but won the bronze the last three times they played, in 2000, 2004 and 2008.

“This is something completely new, so this is definitely a new summit for German women’s football,” said Germany coach Silvia Neid, who is retiring after the Olympics.

“I really don’t have words to describe this, it doesn’t matter if it’s the World Cup or Euros, this is what you have earned through your hard work over weeks and months.”

Sweden started surprisingly positively but Germany began to impose themselves as the match went on and the best chance of the half fell to Anja Mittag after 25 minutes.

Leonie Maier’s curling shot was only parried by the Swedish keeper and the ball fell to Mittag just yards from goal but she blasted the ball high and wide.

The sides were evenly matched but things changed on the resumption and it was the Germans who deservedly took the lead three minutes into the second period.

Dzsenifer Maroszan gathered a cross ball on the edge of the box and had time to steady herself before curling a perfect strike into the top right-hand corner of the net.

They extended their lead 14 minutes later thanks to an unfortunate own goal. A Sara Daebritz free-kick from 20 yards smacked the post and Linda Sembrandt tried to clear but instead kneed the ball into her own goal from just a few yards out.

Sweden reacted almost immediately and just five minutes later Stina Blackstenius pulled them back into the game.

Sweden’s Olivia Schough had a great chance to level the scores three minutes from time but her shot was blocked just yards from goal, much to the chagrin of a Brazilian crowd at the Maracana who were supporting the Swedes, perhaps because the German men’s side hammered Brazil’s men 7-1 in the World Cup finals two years ago.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.