Sweden, Netherlands reach quarter final in EC 2022 – Sport
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Sweden beat Portugal 5-0 to reach the quarterfinals of the European Championship 2022 on Sunday.
SHEFFIELD (AFP) – Sweden beat Portugal 5-0 to reach the quarter-finals of the European Championship 2022 on Sunday when the holders in the Netherlands needed a plethora of late goals to beat Switzerland 4-1 to secure their place in the last eight.
Silver medalists at last year’s Olympics, Sweden is the highest ranked team in the tournament, but failed to reach the highest gear in a draw against the Dutch and squeezed past the Swiss 2-1 in their two opening matches.
Peter Gerhardsson’s ladies put the gear in Leigh to take first place in Group C and had a 3-0 lead at half time.
Manchester City’s Filippa Angeldal struck twice before Carole Costa nodded in her own net in stoppage time in the first half.
Kosovo’s Asllani’s penalty made it 4-0 before Arsenal striker Stina Blackstenius finally got on the scoresheet after two previous attempts were ruled out.
Sweden will face the one who finishes second in Group D with Belgium, Iceland and Italy all in with a chance to finish behind France in Monday’s matches.
“We were really happy that we did enough to win the group. It was something we hoped for when we started,” said Gerhardsson.
The Netherlands have been waiting for the French in the last eight as they had enough to get through despite star striker Vivianne Miedema missing for the second game in a row due to a positive case of coronavirus.
“We play against a great opponent and so do they. I do not think they want to play against us,” said Netherlands boss Mark Parsons, whose team lost 3-1 to France in February.
“The result was not what we wanted (last time), but we said that the next time we played against them we were convinced that we would get better. We saw opportunities.”
In front of a new record audience of 22,596 for a women’s European Championship group match that did not involve the hosts, Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic’s own goal put the Dutch in the lead in Sheffield.
Switzerland responded almost immediately when Geraldine Reuteler coolly finished from Romana Bachmann’s withdrawal just three minutes later.
A draw would have been enough for Mark Parson’s team to reach the knockout stage, but they made sure the three points with three goals in the last six minutes
Substitute Romee Leuchter struck twice, each side of Victoria Pelova’s effort, which survived a lengthy VAR check for offside.
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