Sweden head coach Peter Gerhardsson said he and his staff must come up with a ‘very good plan’ to deal with England after his side’s narrow 1-0 win over Belgium set up a blockbuster semi-final against the Lionesses.
Sweden struggled to find a breakthrough against the Red Flames on Friday, but defender Linda Sembrant’s stoppage-time winner spared the highest ranked team in this year's Women's Euro 2022 the agony of extra time.
The 35-year-old reacted quickest to slam the ball home following a corner in the 92nd minute after the Swedes had spurned 33 attempts to beat goalkeeper Nicky Evrard.
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And Gerhardsson knows that they will face an even tougher task against the Lionesses in a mouth-watering semi-final at Bramall Lane on Tuesday.
“We’re going to have a plan. I don’t know right now what we’re going to make up,” said Gerhardsson.
“But I can assure that we’re going to have a plan – and we need a good plan, we need a very good plan, and maybe we need an extremely, very good plan. It’s a really good team.
“It’s going to be an interesting challenge. I think we are very difficult to beat.
“We need to ask ourselves 'what can we do to stop them [England] from playing well and what are our opportunities to beat them?' We are going to discuss it and look more at their games.
“We missed some quality in our final pass and we didn’t create 100 percent clear-cut goal scoring opportunities. We have to look into that, but the England game will be completely different.
“We have played England twice and so we probably know more about them and how to play against them than we would have done against Spain, but it will be challenging.”
Sweden’s Chelsea defender Magdalena Eriksson was more upbeat when discussing her side’s performance, praising Sweden’s resolve to keep striving until the very end.
“I felt the tears coming because I was so happy,” Eriksson said. “It was a frustrating evening. To finally get that relief, oh my God. I'm so proud of all the girls for how hard we fought.
“It feels unbelievable. That was our goal for the day. It wasn't easy. Belgium made it really difficult. I'm so happy we got the win. I'm so happy for Linda and that we finally got the goal.
“It was really tough. We had to stay mentally really strong. We had to stay positive. We did that. We were going to go until the 94th minute and keep pushing.”
Despite the jubilant scenes inside Leigh Sports Village following the final whistle, Eriksson noted the strength of their semi-final opponents, who have had an extra two days to recover from their win over Spain.
“I know all the players they have, they are extremely talented players, so we’re going to have to be really on it.
“Now it’s about recovering, getting fresh again and then taking them on. It’s going to be an extremely tough game for us. England have been amazing so far in the tournament.”
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