Magdalena Eriksson, the Sweden defender and Chelsea captain, was speaking to the press about her nation’s Women’s Euro semi-final opponent, England. Next to her was Kosovare Asllani – the team’s No.9 by shirt, but No.10 by nature.
“They’ve looked stable and worked well defensively,” Eriksson said before glancing at her team-mate with a smile. “But maybe Kosovare can open it up a little bit. You never know.”
Before all the talk of ‘It’s coming home’, Sweden was the nation tipped by many to win this Euros.
Last summer, they were outstanding at the Olympics Games, losing only on penalties in the final. In 2019, they reached the last four of the World Cup, eliminated in extra-time before beating England to third place.
After constant improvement through each experience, they occupied a large amount of the pre-tournament talk – and rightly so. This is a balanced, consistent and well-coached team. It has all the ingredients to win the title.
“We know how good we are,” Fridolina Rolfo, the Barcelona star, said when asked by GOAL about that hype. “We know what it feels like to lose games and we know we don't want to have that feeling again. But also, we are even better now.
“We have a really good defence. We have many fast players, so we can use counterattacks to score goals. We are strong on set-pieces, too.
"Maybe we have more technical players now [compared to last summer] – skilful, with fast movement. I think perhaps that is something we have added to the squad.”
Getty/GOALThey are yet to set the Euros alight but got better with each game in the group stages, sealing top spot ahead of the reigning champions, the Netherlands, with a 5-0 win over Portugal.
That set-up a quarter-final tie with Belgium that many expected them to cruise through, but their opponents were tough and while England fans watching the eventual 1-0 win may have concluded there was nothing for the Lionesses to worry about, there was important context to note.
In the build-up to the game, Sweden lost Hanna Glas and Emma Kullberg to Covid-19, with Jonna Andersson another confirmed case on the day. The former and the latter are their two first-choice full-backs and their absences were felt massively, with the team struggling for joy out wide.
It was Linda Sembrant’s stoppage-time winner that secured passage to the semi-finals. The 35-year-old only played nine league games all season due to injury, but she came up big on her first start of the summer.
“Holding a clean sheet with a newly-composed backline, with players who haven’t played a lot in this tournament, who haven’t had the best way to prepare, like Linda who has been injured – I’m really, really impressed with how those players stepped up,” Eriksson said after.
It summed up a real strength of Sweden's – depth.
It was on show in the group stages, too, particularly when Hanna Bennison, the 19-year-old named GOAL’s NXGN winner last year, came off the bench to score a late winner against Switzerland that would help secure first place. It was her first international goal.
That squad strength has been needed with the Covid cases and an injury to captain Caroline Seger, who holds things together in midfield. In addition, star striker Stina Blackstenius started the tournament with a knock. The unity of the group is important in that sense, too.
“[We’re] a team that will do everything [we] can to win a game,” Eriksson added. “We never give up, we always fight, we run for each other, we work really, really hard.”
Sweden will be facing a stronger team than Belgium this time, but the general consensus among the players is that it will be a game that suits them more. While their quarter-final opponents sat deep and defended in a block, England will want to dominate.
“It will be a totally different game. I think they will attack and be more offensive and I think that's good for us,” Johanna Rytting Kaneryd, the winger who has formed a potent partnership on the right with Glas, who will return for the semi-final, told GOAL.
Gerhardsson has options with pace, quick feet and good decision-making. He also has one of the stand-out playmakers on the planet, in Asllani, who has been one of the best players in England this summer.
They will have to defend more and nullify the incredibly dangerous and talented players the hosts have, too, but, as Rolfo says, that’s one thing this team excels at. They also have the ability to press high, which England did not enjoy against Austria in their opening fixture.
Getty"Stina Blackstenius is one of our best defenders,” Gerhardsson explained. “She’s tactically very clever and works very hard. I have clips from the Olympics where she chases four or five players and wins the ball.
“Kosovare Asllani is also one of our best. She has such good awareness of the game play. She’s incredibly good in the defensive work. They’re very good in a high press."
‘Even against England?’ one journalist asked. "Even against the United States in the Olympics,” Gerhardsson responded. “Even against England in the World Cup in 2019."
After coming so close to glory in recent years, Sweden are hungry. There has been so much talk about them, but on Tuesday, the pressure will be off.
It’ll all move onto the team on the other side of the pitch, who will be buoyed by a vocal home crowd – but an expectant one.
England know they’ve been good. They know they have what it takes to finally turn a major tournament semi-final – their fourth in a row – into a final.
But their opponent is certainly capable of stopping them.
“We want to win the tournament,” said Rolfo. “But we know we have to work.”