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England are certainly feeling better now about their European Championship title defence, having got over the concerning defeat to France which kicked their tournament off. Thumping wins over the Netherlands and Wales, with 10 goals scored across the two results, have the Lionesses heading into the quarter-finals with plenty of confidence, epitomised by Ella Toone’s message to Sweden. “I think they should be scared,” she said on ITV, asked about Thursday’s opponents.
But cross over to the other side and the feeling is similar. Peter Gerhardsson’s team won all three of their group stage matches, battered Germany and conceded just once to win Group C and set up a rematch of their Euro 2022 semi-final. Three years ago, England convincingly won that meeting by a 4-0 scoreline but, in the words of Chelsea winger Johanna Rytting Kaneryd, something feels “different” this time. “Maybe we've always been a bit of an underdog, but winning 4-1 against Germany still says a lot,” she said. “I definitely think that teams are starting to realise that we're not the underdogs and maybe they don't want to play us.”
After so many near misses, so many close calls and some seriously heartbreaking moments, might this finally be the year that this incredible generation of Swedish talent delivers that first major title? They have every right to believe.
