ZURICH, July 13 — Sweden laid down a marker at Euro 2025 by confidently beating 10-woman Germany 4-1 on Saturday and topping Group C with a perfect nine points.
Peter Gerhardsson’s team will face the runners-up from Group D, potentially European champions England, in the quarter-finals after sweeping aside Germany with a powerful display in Zurich.
Sweden fans sung ABBA songs in the stands of the Letzigrund Stadium as goals from Stina Blackstenius, Smilla Holmberg, Fridolina Rolfo and Lina Hurtig saw off the Germans.
Sweden were hammered 4-0 by England in the semi-finals of the last European Championship three years ago but Gerhardsson said he is looking forward raher than backwards to that heavy defeat.
“I don’t focus on that game. That’s history, it’s a new game if we play England, we’ll write a new history, a better history, a good history,” he told reporters.
“We can only take it one game at a time. Today we had Germany and now we have the quarter-final. Maybe it’s a dull answer but that’s how I work.”
Germany were among the favourites for overall victory ahead of the tournament but after taking an early lead through Jule Brand, Christian Wueck’s team did little else to justify their billing.
And they were done for once Carlotta Wamser was sent off for handballing a goal-bound shot in the 31st minute.
Germany finished on six points and will face the winner of Group D in the next round, with France currently leading the way ahead of Sunday’s final round of matches before the knockout stage.
“We were playing very well until we conceded and then you could see the quality of Sweden, and with the red card it became very difficult,” said Wueck.
“We’ll shake it off and we’re happy to play in the quarter-finals, whether it’s against the French, the English, or whoever.”
Rampant Sweden
Both teams were already through to the quarters before kick-off, with Poland winning their dead rubber with fellow eliminated team Denmark 3-2 in Lucerne.
And Germany, who are now on the same side of the draw as world champions Spain, looked in fine form when Wamser put through Brand to squeeze the opening goal past Jennifer Falk in the seventh minute.
But Blackstenius levelled five minutes later, just as the Germans looked to be on top, when she was given a baffling amount of space to stride through onto Kosovare Asllani’s pass and drill the equaliser into the bottom corner.
From that point onwards Sweden were in complete control of the game and Holmberg gave them a deserved lead in the 25th minute when she weaved her way past Klara Buehl and Sarai Linder.
Trying to recover, Linder slid in to stop Holmberg from shooting but instead booted the ball off her opponent and into the net.
And the game was up for Germany just after the half-hour following Wamser’s acrobatic handball of Rolfo’s shot in a desperate attempt to cover for wayward goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger.
Rolfo stroked home the resulting spot-kick and the match was as good as over with nearly an hour left to play.
Sweden slowed down in the second half, safe in the knowledge that Germany would have to score three times to snatch first place, and Hurtig completed the rout with 10 minutes remaining by tapping home Johanna Rytting Kaneryd’s low cross. — AFP
