Colombia and North Korea eliminated at World Cup group stage.

USA booked their place in the quarter finals of the FIFA Women’s World Cup with an impressive 3-0 win over Colombia.

Victory in Leverkusen places the Americans at the top of Group C on goal difference from Sweden and they are already showing they are one of the teams to beat in Germany.

They were rarely threatened by the Colombians and could have won by an even more comfortable margin. But it took a stunning goal from Heather O’Reilly to set the ball rolling after 12 minutes.

Substitute Megan Rapinoe scored America’s second five minutes into the second half and the match was all but over seven minutes later when Carli Lloyd struck with a long-range effort.

In the early kick-off on Saturday Sweden maintained their winning start to the World Cup as midfielder Lisa Dahlkvist scored the only goal of the game in a hard fought match against North Korea, in Augsburg.

Dahlkvist secured Sweden’s second successive 1-0 win, following their opening victory against Colombia, when she struck midway through the second half after they had dominated most of the match.

The goal started with a floated cross from the left from Linda Forsberg and the ball was knocked back at the far post by Therese Sjogran to leave Gothenburg’s Dahlkvist the simple task of finishing from close range.

North Korea hit back strongly and Ri Un Hyang had a shot cleared off the line as they pushed for an equaliser right up to the final whistle.

But the Koreans, who fielded an unchanged line-up, are left at the bottom of group C following their 2-0 defeat by America in their first game and will complete their tournament with a match against Colombia on Wednesday, in Bochum.

The Swedes go to Wolfsburg to face USA in a match which will decide which country wins the group. And they will have to do that without captain and Player of the Match Caroline Seger, who was booked for a second time in the Finals and is now suspended for one game.