Amanda Ilestedt 90th minute goal gave Sweden a 2-1 win over South African in their Women's World Cup Group G match on Sunday after Fridolina Rolfo had cancelled out Hildah Magaia's opener.
From Sweden's 11th corner of a game played out in pouring rain in the New Zealand capital, the lanky Ilestedt jumped highest and squeezed the ball home to save her team's blushes.
Earlier, Johanna Rytting Kaneryd's cross skewed off defender Lebohang Ramalepe and bounced into the net off Rolfo to hand the Swedes a lifeline in the 66th minute after South Africa's Magaia had broken the deadlock two minutes after the break.
The South African team reacted to the result with a sense of confidence.
The result left the third-ranked Swedes top of Group G, before Italy and Argentina play their opener in Auckland on Monday.
Rainy day
Banyana Banyana players sang and danced as they stepped down from their team bus and made their way to their locker room an hour before the match started. They sang and danced again as they left the field.
South Africa have never won a Women's World Cup match since their debut in 2019.
Rain began falling in Wellington about two hours before kickoff and continued steadily, sometimes heavily into the match, glazing the pitch and making it slick in places.
The wind, usually omnipresent in Wellington and a factor when Spain met Costa Rica on Friday, was absent and the harbour which flanks the Sky Stadium on its eastern side, was glassy.
