Sweden's national team captain Peter Gerhardsson looks forward to Thursday's match:
"It will be an exciting quarterfinal that we and all Swedish supporters really look forward to. England is a skilled opponent that we recently got important experiences from meeting through the European Championship qualifiers", he says to the association's website.
That England would fairly easily defeat Wales and thus secure a quarterfinal was expected – the English won in the end with 6–1.
It was therefore the other match in the group, which was played at the same time, that was mainly of Swedish interest. France needed to win or draw against the Netherlands to secure the group victory – a task the French women managed gallantly.
France did go to halftime break at a disadvantage 1–2. At that point, England led the group. But when the referee blew the whistle to start the second half, it was as if the French women had made up their minds. Within just six minutes, after a little over an hour of play, France scored three goals and suddenly topped the group again.
France won the match in the end with 5–2 and thus leaves the death group with full score, nine points, after three victories.
Now, Germany, second in group C, awaits the French women in Saturday's quarterfinal.
