The Swedish footballers are in the semi-finals of the European Championship. But getting there is a damn hard piece of work. The rank underdogs Belgium put up an intense fight. The victory of the Swedes is well deserved. However, it takes a bit of luck to get the winning goal.
Sweden’s footballers have reached the semi-finals of a European Football Championship for the ninth time thanks to a forced goal in the last second. The Olympic silver medalist defeated the blatant outsider Belgium with a very strong goalkeeper Nicky Evrard in Leigh 1:0 (0:0) with some effort. The Swedes play hosts England in Sheffield on Tuesday to see them through to the final on July 31 at London’s Wembley Stadium. For another win, however, the Swedes need a significant increase in performance.
Linda Sembrant (90.2) scored in the pouring rain with the second margin after a corner for Sweden, the last of three corona cases – including Hanna Glas from FC Bayern Munich and Emma Kullberg from Brighton
The Belgians offered the favorites a big fight in their first knockout game at a major tournament, impressing above all with their defensive qualities, but just missed the possible surprise. Belgium only made it into the quarter-finals thanks to a 1-0 win against Italy in the last group game, but were only able to put a few accents on the offensive against the tournament favorites.
The 7517 spectators saw a one-sided encounter from the start. Sweden, who won their only title at the first ever women’s European Championship in 1984, created numerous chances without reward. A goal by Stina Blackstenius (24th) was disallowed after studying the TV pictures because the Swede was millimeters offside. At the break the goal shot ratio was 15:1 for Sweden. The favorite also dominated in the second round and acted increasingly unimaginative. Only Sembrant made everything clear shortly before the end.
