At La Rosaleda stadium, it's time to deliver immediately for the new national team captain of Swedish women's football. The Spanish Football Federation announces that Málaga on the Spanish sun coast will host the first match in the Nations League semifinal between Spain and Sweden.
This will be a tough first test for Tony Gustavsson, without having had the opportunity to test his national team in any friendly matches.
Yes, it's an extreme start. Of course, it would have been different if we had had an autumn with two gatherings and been able to have training matches and maybe worked in a slightly different way, trying to implement as much as possible of the new, looking at new things in the game and possibly new players, said Gustavsson at a press conference two weeks ago.
Three consecutive losses
The match in Málaga on October 24 is the first in a double meeting. The semifinal will then be decided with a return match at Gamla Ullevi in Gothenburg on October 28.
The last time Sweden and Spain measured their strength against each other was in 2023, with three meetings in a relatively short time. The Spanish women won the World Championship semifinal in Auckland with 2–1, on their way to the nation's first gold on the women's side. The same autumn, the teams were also pitted against each other in the Nations League. Spain won then as well, first with 3–2 in Gothenburg and then with 5–3 in Málaga.
Now both teams have a new national team captain. Tony Gustavsson replaced Peter Gerhardsson after the European Championship and in the Spanish camp, Sonia Bermúdez has taken over after Montse Tomé.
Extremely difficult to beat
Tony Gustavsson knows what a tough challenge Sweden is facing – the Spanish team also took European Championship silver in the summer – but at the same time is passionate about the opportunity to immediately fight for a trophy.
Now we're going in and competing for a title, in a semifinal in the Nations League. Moreover, against Spain, which in recent years has shown that they are one of the world's absolute best national teams, not least at home, where they have practically never lost.
In the other semifinal, Germany and France meet. The final and the match for third place will be decided at the turn of the month November–December.
