Fourth time lucky for England? – Talking points before Sweden’s semi-final
England face Sweden on Tuesday for a place in the Euro 2022 final at Wembley five days later.
Here, the PA news agency looks at some of the key talking points surrounding the semi-final at Bramall Lane.
Fourth time lucky?
England have reached this stage in their last three major tournaments – and suffered defeat on each occasion. At the last European Championship five years ago in the Netherlands, they were beaten 3-0 by the hosts, who – led by now-Lioness boss Sarina Wiegman – went on to lift the trophy. Both sides of that were 2-1 losses to the USA at the 2019 World Cup in France and to Japan at the 2015 edition in Canada. Breaking that cycle on Tuesday would see England back in a final for the first time since they finished runners-up at Euro 2009 in Finland.
Same page again?
Through a group campaign in which the team scored 14 goals without reply over three wins, and then for the 2-1 extra-time win over Spain in the quarter-finals, England have kept the same starting line-up. Substitutes such as Alessia Russo and Ella Toone, who combined for the equalizer against Spain, have done well after coming on – and it may well be that Wiegman again wants to keep such players as options to make an impact from the bench. It appears that all 23 players in her squad will be available for selection.
White on the edge of history
Tuesday could be a personal milestone for Ellen White, who enters the competition just one goal behind England’s all-time record goalscorer Wayne Rooney. The 33-year-old Manchester City striker extended his Lionesses record to 52 with two goals in the group stage, one game in the 8-0 demolition of Norway at the Amex Stadium.
The view to Sweden
An indication of how tough England’s challenge could be on Tuesday is the current world ranking, where they sit at eight – Sweden is Euro 2022’s highest-ranked team, at number two. Their squad features some prominent Women’s Super League names, such as Chelsea skipper Magda Eriksson and Arsenal striker Stina Blackstenius, and they reached a final last summer and took silver at the Tokyo Olympics. At this tournament, Peter Gerhardsson’s side topped their group after a 1-1 draw with the Netherlands and wins over Switzerland and Portugal before edging past Belgium 1-0 in the last eight.
Head to head
The Swedes historically have an edge against England and lose only one of their seven competitive meetings. It was the second leg of the inaugural European Championship final in 1984 – Sweden won the ensuing penalty shootout to take the trophy. They also beat them 3-2 after extra time in the semi-finals of Euro 1987, while the last meeting saw them defeat the Lionesses 2-1 in the third-place play-off at WC 2019.