And I’ll leave you with our report from Andy Hunter. Thanks for reading!
Full-time: Sweden 5-0 Portugal
Your classic statement of intent. Sweden had underwhelmed in their first two games but they have now officially arrived. They lived up to their billing as the pre-tournament favourites today, getting better and better throughout the game, mixing attacking flair with steely professionalism, the final score not flattering them at all.
Goal! Sweden 5-0 Portugal (Blackstenius 91)
Blackstenius brings down a long ball with her back to goal and zips the ball out to Schough, wasting no time to race off and receive the return pass. On the edge of the box, she shifts the ball right and bends a laser-guided shot inside the far post. Great goal.
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88 mins: Netherlands have taken the lead against Switzerland, so it looks like that’s that for Group C.
85 mins: Blackstenius peels away down the left channel and holds the ball up well, waiting for the right moment to play the ball into the feet of Hurtig, who fires first time into the side netting.
82 mins: Jessica Silva is great to watch. Since her side going 4-0 she has taken it upon herself to entertain the crowd, trying tricks whenever she picks up the ball. This time she spins away from her marker and looks to Diana Silva with a impudent dinked through-ball, which doesn’t quite find its targets but draws plenty of cheers from the fans.
78 mins: Portugal’s best chance of the game comes as Faria burrows down the right wing and whips a cross to the chest of Norton, who kills the ball dead, swivels brilliantly, and fizzes a shot right across the face of goal. She made that chance for herself superbly – but should have scored.
75 mins: Hurtig finds Andersson, whose low cross hits a Portuguese knee and goes behind. Asllani swings it in, Morais punches weakly, Portugal escape.
69 mins: Blackstenius is sent clean through by Asllani, but her first touch is poor and Gomes gets back to dispossess her. The Portugal break and Jessica Silva wriggles free and with some great footokrk opens up a shooting opportunity for herself … then slices her left-foot shot badly wide.
66 mins: Portugal enjoy a rare excursion into the Sweden half, Jessica Silva finds the galloping Marchao, whose cross gives Lindahl and equally rare touch of the ball.
Key event
64 mins: Rolfo jinks into a yards of space and bends a shot at goal but Gomes gets in the way. Then a free kick deep on the right: Asllani’s launched delivery drops from the skies and Costa, under pressure, can only send her defensive header back looping across goal, where Blacksteius is waiting. She responds with another looping header of her own, and the ball arcs over Morais, off the far post and over the line before the keeper can scoop it away. It’s five … no it isn’t, because a lengthy VAR review finds that Blackstenius was a hair’s breadth offside.
60 mins: Sweden aren’t done. Rolfo finds Blackstenius on the run, whose left-foot shot at full pelt draws a stop from Morais. Then Glas marauds forward and lofts a deep cross to Rolfo who header goes over.
59 mins: Now Portugal shuffle the pack: Borges goes off for Dolores Silva, Nazareth for Faria.
58 mins: Meanwhile, it’s all happening at Bramall Lane. Read all about it:
55mins: Two changes for Sweden: Andersson makes way for Sembrant, Kaneryd for Schough.
Goal! Sweden 4-0 Portugal (Asllani 54)
The captain, the best player on the park today, steps up and plants the ball into the bottom-right corner. Morais goes the right way, and goes early, but the placement is too good. And that’s that.
Penalty to Sweden!
This looks innocuous, but the referee has spotted a handball from Diana Gomes as the ball was blammed at her from point-blank range. Oh dear.
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50 mins: Blackstenius, right playing on the shoulder, latches on to a smart ball from Andersson and bustles past Gomes, now one on one with Morais. The keeper comes out quickly, makes herself big, and does well to turn the shot around the post.
48 mins: Rolfo finds herself in all sorts of space on the edge of the box but, almost disbelieving of how much time she has, rushes an easy through-ball to Blackstenius, who miscontrols.
46 mins: Norton bundles Angeldal over in midfield and Sweden funnel the ball out to the right, where Glas is never shy of getting forward. But Borges stands firm and eventually win the throw.
And we’re about to get back underway here, where Portugal need the second-half performance of a lifetime. No changes for either side by the looks of it.
Here’s what’s happening in Group C’s other fixture, where there has been a bit of VAR japery but no goals:
52 mins: Peep peep. Half-time. Game over?
Goal! Sweden 3-0 Portugal (Costa 51, og)
Marchão badly misjudges the interception of a through-pass, lunging over the ball to leave Kaneryd clean through – but Morais is quick off her line to save one-on-on. But then, another set-piece, another goal: this time Andersson drops the ball right under the crossbar, inviting Morais to come and claim it. But the keeper – perhaps with her mistake for the first goal playing on her mind – stays determinedly glued to her line and the ball bobbles into the net off the head of Carole Costa, through little fault of her own.
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48 mins: Sweden attack down the left, Bjorn aiming a deep cross into the box that is half-cleared. The ball falls to the brilliant Asllani, who from 10 yards out has the entire goal to aim at but lifts a weak shot over the bar.
46 mins: Portugal have already come back from two goals down once this tournament, salvaging a draw against Switzerland. This time they’ll have to do one better, and against the world’s second-best team. Boa sorte.
Goal! Sweden 2-0 Portugal (Angeldal 45)
44 mins: Some showboating from Asllani in the corner draws a vengeful hack from Jessica Silva. Asllani shapes to swing the free-kick into a crowded box, but pulls it back to the edge of the box where Angeldal is waiting and places the ball calmly home.
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43 mins: A sublime backheel from Asllani on the edge of the box bisects the Portugal defence to send Blackstenius clean through. The striker batters her finish into the top corner … but had strayed a yard offside. That would have been a glorious goal.
40 mins: Nazareth finds room in a crowded midfield before picking out Jessica Silva wide on the right, and the forward spots her namesake on the penalty spot. Diana Silva goes for the first time volley, but it’s a tricky height and she doesn’t quite catch it properly.
37 mins: Blackstenius and Asllani play a neat one-two on the right, the former escaping into the box and losing her balance at the vital moment.
35 mins: Sweden spring a break when Kaneryd intercepts a loose pass from Gomes and exchanges passes with Blackstenius before the attackers are eventually crowded out. Then Glas gets forward from right-back to bend in a deep cross that Portugal scramble clear. Sweden are finding their rhythm now.
33 mins: Amado goes down under a late challenge by Rytting Kaneryd, who plants her studs on the top of the right-back’s foot. After considerable medical attention, she is stretchered off to be replaced by Joana Marchão.
29 mins: Angeldal whips in a cross from the right, cleared behind by Gomes, and the resulting corner is a replica of the one that led to the goal – Ansersson swings it on and Morais’s punch doesn’t clear the penalty box – but this time the ball lands with a Portugal shirt.
25 mins: Frustration rears its head for Portugal, who certainly don’t deserve to be behind, as Borges takes out Rytting Kaneryd with a cynical slide tackle.
Goal! Sweden 1-0 Portugal (Angeldal 21)
21 mins: Sweden win a corner when Asllani wriggles to the byline and picks out Bjorn, whose sliced shot hits a defender and goes behind. Andersson’s inswinging cross draws Morais, but the keeper doesn’t get anywhere near enough distance on her punch, and the drops at the feet of Angeldal, who taps home from eight yards.
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18 mins: Norton spreads play to Borges, whose smart early ball finds Diana Silva peeling out to the left of the penalty area. She looks for Nazareth in the box but Eriksson gets across to put the ball behind. Lindahl flaps at the resulting corner and the ball lands at the feet of Costa, whose smashes the ball back across the face of goal – and out for a goal kick.
16 mins: Andersson ventures forward from left-back and plays a smart one-two with Blackstenius. She drills in a cross but Morais gets down quickly to smother.
13 mins: Portugal are doing well to stay on the front foot, Jessica Silva doing well to offer her side an outlet and lead the press out of possession. Sweden look to break through Blackstenius but Pinto is on the spot to mop up.
10 mins: Jessica Silva, lightning quick, picks up the ball on the right and tests Andersson for pace. The left-back is up to the task but takes a knock while making the challenge and stays down, although it looks lie she’ll be alright.
7 mins: Morais, the newcomer in goal for Portugal, is intent on playing it out from the back but not especially convincing at it so far. Here she gives it short to Costa who, being closed down, plays it back to her keeper, who hoofs clear in a panic. Watch this space.
4 mins: Asllani vs Borges – both wearing No9 – is already shaping up to be a nice battle. This time the midfielder picks up the ball only to be floored by a fierce early challenge from the full-back.
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1 min: And we’re off. An early misunderstanding between Costa and Morais gifts the ball to Asllani, who ends up in the box, ready to pull the trigger, when Borges arrives out of nowhere to save the day. Borges wants a penalty but it was a great tackles. Portugal zip up the other end and Pinto has a go from range but it’s catching practice for Lindahl.
The teams are out, the anthems are endured, and kickoff awaits. Sweden’s captain Caroline Seger, by the way, is injured today, Kosovare Asllani taking the armband.
Not only could all four teams in this group still go through, they could plausibly end up with the same number of points, should Portugal and Switzerland triumph this evening. In that instance, teams could be separated by goal difference, goals scored and maybe even their disciplinary records.
Portugal, who need nothing less than a win, have rolled the dice with an ultra-attacking lineup. Ana Borges, Andreia Norton, Jessica Silva, Francisca Nazareth and Diana Silva are all forwards of some description or other. It’s a hell of a gamble, especially since their chief strength of late has been their water-tight defence. Sweden have scored 33 goals in their last 10 games, so we could be in for some fun here.
Sweden, meanwhile, bring in experienced defender Jonna Andersson for veteran skipper Caroline Seger, and Johanna Kaneryd replaces Juventus forward Lina Hurtig, as she did from the bench against Switzerland. Barcelona’s Fridolina Rolfo and Arsenal’s Freya Blackstenius keep their places up front.
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Portugal have drafted in their second-choice keeper, Patricia Morais, and made a signiciant outfield change, too: left-back Joana Marchão makes way for Francisca Nazareth, the 19-year-old Benfica forward.
Team news!
Sweden: Lindahl; Glas, Ilestedt, Eriksson, Andersson; Angeldahl, Asllani, Björn; Kaneryd, Blackstenius, Fridolina Rolfö.
Portugal: Morais; Amado, Gomes, Costa; Borges, Pinto, Dolores Silva, Norton; Jessica Silva, Nazareth, Diana Silva
Preamble
The group of death? Certainly everyone involved is still fighting for their life. With four supremely high-quality matches and every team in the group eyeing a quarter-final place going into the final group game, it’s probably fair to say that Group C has delivered the best of Euro 2022 so far.
After a pair of knife-edge draws in the opening games, Sweden gave themselves the upper hand over this evening’s opponents with a hard-fought win over Switzerland – sealed by a wondergoal from teenage substitute Hanna Bennison – while Portugal found themselves on the wrong end of a five-goal thriller against the Netherlands.
What does it all mean? Essentially, that Sweden just need a draw to book themselves a place in the quarter-finals; Portugal need to win and hope Netherlands – who sit at the top of Group C – avoid defeat against Switzerland. And whoever finishes atop the group once the dust has settled will have lined up a potential semi-final with either England or Spain.
Peter Gerhardsson’s Sweden side are ranked second in the world and are tournament favourites for good reason: they are undefeated since March 2020 – a frankly ludicrous run of 32 games – and the last time these two sides met, back in February, the Swedes ran out 4-0 winners.
Portugal are only at this tournament because of Russia’s late ban, but they would argue they near enough earned their place over the course of a qualifying campaign during which they conceded just two goals. Certainly they are not about to surrender the chance for a place in the last eight. As livewire striker Diana Silva said on Wednesday, after scoring one of her side’s goals and setting up the other: “Playing like we are, qualifying is still possible.”
Kick-off 5pm BST.
