Sweden thrashed Portugal 5-0 and the Netherlands, the defending champion, needed a flurry of late goals to beat Switzerland 4-1 to ensure their places in the Euro 2022 quarterfinals on Sunday.
The silver medallist at last year’s Olympics, Sweden is the highest ranked team in the tournament, but failed to hit top gear in drawing with the Dutch and squeezing past the Swiss 2-1 in its opening two games.
Peter Gerhardsson‘s women clicked into gear in Leigh to claim top spot in Group C and were 3-0 up by halftime. Manchester City’s Filippa Angeldal struck twice before Carole Costa headed into her own net in first-half stoppage time.
Kosovare Asllani‘s penalty made it 4-0 before Arsenal striker Stina Blackstenius finally got on the scoresheet after having two earlier efforts ruled out.
Sweden will face whoever finishes second in Group D. Belgium, Iceland and Italy all have a chance to finishing behind France after Monday’s matches.
“We were really satisfied that we did enough to win the group. That was something we hoped for when we started,” said Gerhardsson.
The Dutch must face the French in the quarterfinals as they had enough to get through despite missing star striker Vivianne Miedema for the second consecutive game due to a positive case of Covid 1-9.
“We’re playing a big opponent and so are they. I don’t think they want to play us,” said Netherlands boss Mark Parsons, whose team lost 3-1 to France in February. “The result wasn’t what we wanted [last time], but we said that the next time we played them, we were confident that we would be better. We saw opportunity.”
In front of a new record crowd of 22,596 for a women’s Euro group match not involving the hosts, Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic‘s own goal put the Dutch in front in Sheffield. Switzerland responded almost immediately when Geraldine Reuteler coolly finished from Romana Bachmann‘s pull-back just three minutes later.
A draw would have been enough for the Oranje to reach the knockout stages, but it made sure of the three points with three goals in the final six minutes Substitute Romee Leuchter struck twice, either side of Victoria Pelova‘s effort, which survived a lengthy VAR check for offside.
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