Women's Euro 2025 team guides: Sweden
This article is part of the Guardian's Euro 2025 Experts' Network, a cooperation between some of the best media organisations from the 16 countries who qualified. theguardian.com is running previews from two teams each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 2 July.
Sweden's journey to the Euros was both complicated and straightforward. The complicated bit came first and involved being drawn in the same group as England and France: Sweden ultimately finished third despite drawing twice with the European champions. That led to the simple bit: a playoff where Serbia were taken apart 8-0 on aggregate.
After that came a mixed Nations League campaign. Denmark were beaten home and away, Sweden scoring eight goals over two matches. Wales proved a harder nut to crack, with Rhian Wilkinson's team coming away with two 1-1 draws.
Given that every match was competitive the head coach, Peter Gerhardsson, could not afford to rotate his squad much. For example, going into the game against Norway on 26 June, there was only one goalkeeper available with international experience: Jennifer Falk. The two back-ups, Tove Enblom and Emma Holmgren, are yet to play at senior level.
Gerhardsson, however, was unconcerned. 'I don't know if it really matters,' he said. 'If one of them had played and conceded a lot of goals, that selection might have backfired – and then you'd have to take that result with you into the Euros.'
In general Sweden have been fortunate with injuries but during the final camp Arsenal's Rosa Kafaji withdrew with a foot injury and in the big win against Denmark in early June, the Barcelona star Fridolina Rolfö also suffered a foot injury. On 9 June Barça said the player had suffered ligament damage but Sweden's medical team are confident she will be fit for the opening fixture against Denmark on 4 July.
The key midfielder is Real Madrid's Filippa Angeldahl, Gerhardsson's trusted general on the pitch, and she contributes with her fair share of goals. Nathalie Björn and Magdalena Eriksson are reliable choices at centre-back, while on the right, Hanna Lundkvist has become first-choice but she is now facing competition from the youngster Smilla Holmberg.
Up front, the attacking trio of Rolfö, Stina Blackstenius and Johanna Rytting Kaneryd will once again lead the line, having proved their consistency for some time now.
This is a special tournament for the head coach, Peter Gerhardsson, his last in charge. He will be replaced by the former Australia head coach, Tony Gustavsson, after Euro 2025.Originally from Uppsala and a former top-flight player for Hammarby, Gerhardsson has been in charge since 2017. In nearly eight years he has led Sweden to two World Cup bronze medals, an Olympic silver and a European Championship semi-final. He also walked into a broom cupboard after a press conference at the 2023 World Cup, to everyone's amusement, a moment immortalised by the Guardian cartoonist David Squires. Gerhardsson was delighted: 'For me, who liked cartoons when I grew up, that was big. It can't be easy to feature in a Guardian cartoon. I managed that without even trying! I felt: 'Damn, that's fun.' The fact that they were poking fun at me I don't care about. I am who I am. I try to be honest to myself so here I am, that has pros and cons. You have to take that.'
Johanna Rytting Kaneryd. Sweden have several high-profile players, such as Stina Blackstenius and Fridolina Rolfö, but Chelsea's Rytting Kaneryd was trusted by her club coach Sonia Bompastor during the 2024-25 season and was named Sweden's footballer of the year for 2024-25. She played a key role in Chelsea's domestic treble and was one of Sweden's most important players in both the Euro qualifiers and the Nations League. She is best known for her speed and fearless one-on-one play down the flank. As Magdalena Eriksson said: 'As a former left-back I can just say that she's a full-back's worst nightmare.'
The 18-year-old full-back Smilla Holmberg is one of the most exciting and intriguing players in the squad. Holmberg and another youngster, her Hammarby teammate Ellen Wangerheim, both have huge potential. But while Wangerheim has been linked with several big clubs abroad it has been relatively quiet for Holmberg. That might be about to change. She made an impressive debut against Italy in the Nations League and if she continues on the same path most clubs will want her. A fearless full-back who is not afraid to attack, she is also remarkably composed in defence.
Sign up to Moving the Goalposts
No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women's football
after newsletter promotion
Damallsvenskan has historically had a high status. It produces talented players who frequently move on to top international leagues. However in recent years the Swedish league has lost some status globally – a challenge currently being addressed in Sweden to keep pace with the rapidly growing major leagues. The league is officially classed as professional but some aspects are more semi-professional. Many players have other jobs alongside their playing careers. There is a lot of talent coming through, including Häcken's Felicia Schröder, as well as the Hammarby duo Wangerheim and Holmberg.
Sweden are traditionally a strong tournament team. They should advance from the group, though Germany will be a tough opponent. A potential quarter-final against England or France would be a major obstacle and it's reasonable to think that the journey will end there.
The Sweden team guide was written by Ella Lindvall for Fotbollskanalen.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
35 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Wimbledon 2025: Today's order of play, when will Emma Raducanu play and how to watch
Draper was beaten in the second round last year by compatriot Cameron Norrie in what was Murray's final appearance at Wimbledon. His prospects have been hugely enhanced since then, however, as he reached the US Open semi-finals and won his first Masters 1000 title in Indian Wells. When asked whether he could be less conservative in his celebrations than he had in the US tournaments, he added: 'We'll have to find out.' Play gets under way in what is expected to be the hottest ever start to Wimbledon, with temperatures to hit 35 degrees Celsius by Tuesday. None of Britain's top hopes have been handed ideal draws, however Emma Raducanu, also a British No 1, has former champion Marketa Vondrousova and the world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka blocking her route to a place in week two. Raducanu finds herself up against the Welsh teenager Mimi Xu in round one. Sabalenka could await in what would be a daunting third-round encounter. Draper, meanwhile, is in the same half of the draw as the top-seeded Jannik Sinner, seven-time champion Novak Djokovic and Americans Ben Shelton and Tommy Paul. He could play Lorenzo Sonego in round two. Djokovic, chasing a 25th slam at the age of 38, would be a likely quarter-final opponent. Katie Boulter and Sonay Kartal, both rivals to Raducanu's British No 1 ranking, also face tricky first rounds. Boulter plays the former world No 2 Paula Badosa while Kartal, whom like Fearnley recently cracked the world's top 50, faces the former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko. The hottest ever day at Wimbledon was on July 1 2015, when temperatures reached 35.7C. The warmest opening day on record was on June 25 2001, when temperatures hit 29.3C. New for 2025 No line judges In a major break from history for the Championships, an automated electronic line calling (ELC) system will be adopted this year, consigning line judges to the past. The technology will be in place across all Championships and qualifying match courts, with more than 450 cameras installed across the two venues to facilitate its operation. A contingent of the former line umpires will return to the tournament in the new role of match assistants. Change to finals weekend The men's and women's singles finals will start at 4pm, two hours later than usual, to appeal to global broadcasters, with both matches now beginning on the west coast of the United States at the more generous time of 8am, rather than 6am. The All England Club said the decision to move the singles finals to later slots, with doubles showpieces starting at 1pm 'makes for a better conclusion to the Championships'. Wimbledon court and stadium guide Wimbledon has six show courts: Centre Court, No 1 Court, No 2 Court, No 3 Court, Court 12 and Court 18. Centre is the largest court at the All England Club and features the famous Royal Box. The court capacity on Centre is 14,974 while Court No 1 can hold 12,345. There are 12 other grass courts in use throughout the tournament. Court 8 was where an 18-year-old John McEnroe made his SW19 bow against Egypt's Ismail El Shafei in 1977. In 1995, on Court 14, Tim Henman became the first player to be disqualified from Wimbledon when playing in a doubles match with Jeremy Bates against the United States' Jeff Tarango and Sweden's Henrik Holm. Henman was punished for whacking a ball in anger, accidentally hitting 16-year-old ball girl Caroline Hall in the head.
Telegraph
35 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Tactical bathroom breaks often turn the tide in close tennis matches
Sir Andy Murray was right - bathroom breaks really do confer an unfair advantage in tennis, making it far more likely a losing player will win the next set. For years, tennis players have complained that a mid-match trip to the lavatory is less about a call of nature and more about disrupting the flow of the match and providing a breather for a struggling player to get mentally back on track. In 2021, Sir Andy suggested that he lost his US Open first round match against Stefanos Tsitsipas after the Greek player took a lengthy eight-minute bathroom break when he dropped the fourth set. 'It's just disappointing because I feel it influenced the outcome of the match,' he told the Washington Post at the time. The University of Manchester studied the results of 250 players between 2013 and 2023 and found that 71 per cent of bathroom timeouts occurred when a player had lost the previous set. Without a break, just one-third of players went on to recover and take the next set, but that rose to 47 per cent if they took a bathroom break. Dr Liam Blything, a tennis fan and data expert from the University of Manchester, said: 'There has been much argument in the media over recent years about the formalisation of gamesmanship in tennis, with the taking of bathroom breaks. 'This study for the first time used real data to check the validity of those concerns. 'There is now clear evidence a well-timed bathroom break in play confers an advantage to the player taking the break by regathering him or herself and disrupting the flow of the opponent.' The data analysed by Dr Blything showed there were 1,928 breaks in play in the study period, though when medical and other breaks were accounted for, he was left with 366 bathroom timeouts. Many players have talked about the usefulness of taking a timeout when the match is slipping away, even though the practice is frowned upon. In the 2021 French Open final, Novak Djokovic was down 0-2 against Tsitsipas before taking a break and recovering the match to win 3.2. Speaking after the match Djokovic said: 'The bathroom break was the turning point. Sometimes in these kinds of circumstances where not much is happening positively for you on the court in terms of tennis and the other guy on the court is dominating the play, sometimes these things are necessary. 'A little break, a little pep talk, and try to recuperate and re-gather the thoughts and reassemble everything that you have and [counter] your opponent with the best possible game.' Tsitsipas also complained that Djokovic had come back from the break 'like a different player suddenly'. Likewise, Roger Federer took a bathroom break after losing the fourth set in the 2017 Australian Open semifinal against Stan Wawrinka. He went on to win 3-2, and said afterwards: 'I think they're more mental than anything else. I only really did take the timeout because I thought, 'He took one already, maybe I can take one for a change'. Following the fallout from the Tsitsipas eight-minute bathroom break against Murray in 2021, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) introduced a rule for the 2022 season to restrict timeouts to a maximum of three minutes. Dr Blything also looked at how a medical timeout changed the nature of the game and found it tended to decrease the number of errors by the player who took the break, while also decreasing the number of winning shots by their opponent. It showed the timeout advantage is a combination of the player benefitting from the opportunity to personally reset themselves and from a disruption to the rhythm of their opponent. Sports psychologists argue that an interruption during a game disrupts positive momentum for players who are on a roll, which is difficult to regain. It can also do the opposite, allowing a losing player to refocus from a negative thinking spiral that may be hindering their game. Dr Blything added: 'These pioneering findings uniquely inform players and tennis governing bodies about the influence of timeouts and, more broadly, elucidate the role that stoppages can play in sport for altering momentum. 'It would be useful to understand if this effect is relevant in other sports. Snooker players, for example, seem to take a lot of bathroom breaks.'
BBC News
35 minutes ago
- BBC News
Celtic sign striker Osmand from Fulham
Striker Callum Osmand has joined Celtic from Fulham, with the Scottish champions due to pay a development fee for the out-of-contract who has signed a four-year contract, has been at Craven Cottage since the age of 13 and has represented both England and Wales at youth season, Osmand scored 18 goals across all competitions for Fulham's Under-21 side. More to follow.
