Ladies’ European Championship 2022: The Netherlands vs Sweden
England and Norway started their UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 successfully after victories over Austria and Northern Ireland, while the rest of the teams have not yet played their first matches in the group stage.
One of the most anticipated matches is the meeting between the Netherlands and Sweden on Saturday night. This will be a huge test for both teams as they are among the favorites to win the tournament.
The Netherlands, who want to defend their title, have a star-studded squad with players from leading European teams who Olympique Lyonnais, PSG, Arsenal and Chelsea. The same applies to Sweden, which is undefeated in its last 12 games, emphasizing that their current form is better than the opponent’s.
The two nations are in Group C, where they will fight Portugal and Switzerland to advance to the knockout stage. Even if it is the first, this game can be crucial to their future in the competition if they continue, so any mistakes from both teams can cost them a lot.
With experienced players such as Vivianne Miedema and Danielle van de Donk, the Netherlands can easily achieve dominance in ball possession, even if Sweden’s combined effort may be enough to stop them from influencing.
In this preview, we use tactical analysis to determine what the team’s tactics may be and how they may reveal each other.
Who can be the key players for both teams?
Lynn Wilms will be crucial for Netherlands in the right-back position after having a successful season at club level with Wolfsburg. The 21-year-old is a constant threat in attacking positions due to his regular movement up and down the flank.
She is expected to be the main source of intersection attempts aimed at creating opportunities for her team. While left-back Dominique Janssen is much more defensive-oriented and rarely steps out of position, Wilms is a player who Sweden should mark hard and left-back Jonna Andersson should increase her defensive awareness and divide her responsibilities well, as her move to the advanced areas could expose the team out of possession.
If the Chelsea player manages to keep Wilms away from crossing the attack, her team has a much better chance of successfully defeating the Netherlands. This is due to the strong partnership between Sweden’s midfielders. Magdalena Eriksson and Amanda Ilestedt complement each other’s movement, which gives the team confidence both inside and outside ball possession.
Although Eriksson is a ball-playing defender, she does not neglect her defensive responsibility and is active both on and off the ball. One of her best qualities is her ability to recover the ball as she manages to assess the situations correctly and use her positioning and movement to regain possession. She also has an active presence in the air, which often helps the team in the opposition’s penalty area. Her partner in crime Ilestedt has similar strengths that form a solid base for the team to be confident and attack.
The Netherlands must be very creative in the last third if they want to break through the resistance’s defense.
What does the Netherlands need to think about?
Sweden is usually very high placed with the entire defensive line approaching the center line (sometimes even past it), and tries to control the game in the opposing half and create a large number of chances in front of goal.
They try to stay quite compact and use strong positioning and a lot of internal movement to advance the ball and expose the opposition. That is why the Netherlands’ marking strategy must be adapted to it in order to block the passing lanes and prohibit them from sending the ball to the last third, as they often do.
It is still unclear which formation manager Peter Gerhardsson would choose, but it is most likely that he will stick to a back-four schedule, even though his team has played in 3-5-2 and 3-4-3 in some of their latest games.
This allows them to make position changes without risking being exposed defensively. The high and wide movements of the outfielders allow the outfielders to cut the inside, which should be considered by the Netherlands as their runs often allow them to use space and create goal opportunities. A low block should be considered because Sweden likes to overload the last third with players and their opponents must limit the spaces between the lines to stop them.
How can the Netherlands reveal Sweden?
The secret behind both the Netherlands’ defensive and offensive success may be the possible low block. At the same time as it will provide more security against Sweden’s over-engaged attack, it can give them the opportunity to create attack chances through their counter-attack movement.
The team is no stranger to trying to expose their opponents through counter-attacks and it is expected that they will try to expose Sweden’s highly positioned defense in the same way. The Netherlands’ efficiency in front of goal is much higher than that of the opposition with almost half of their shots on goal. This means that Sweden must increase their defensive awareness to try to stop their attacks early because players like Danielle van de Donk and Vivianne Miedema have experience of breaking the lines and using spaces and shooting from quality positions.
Despite being well organized, Sweden has some defensive shortcomings that their opponents can reveal. The high number of offenses committed (9 on average per match) gives them an increased risk of allowing the opposition more goal chances, which the Netherlands has proven to be good at, especially thanks to their presence in the air.
However, the Netherlands are most likely to score from open play thanks to the skill of their attacking players and the team’s ability to send balls behind the defense, which is why Sweden must consider placing its defensive line slightly lower than usual.
Conclusion
Like ours analysis shows, the meeting between two of the tournament’s favorites can offer a lot of tactics and is expected to be entertaining thanks to their attacking strategies. Both teams have an equal chance to take the three points and in the end it will only depend on who makes better use of the opposition’s mistakes.