Soccer-Denmark's Bruun seeks revenge at Women's Euros after Swedish drubbing

Hindustan Times

3 days ago

By Philip O'Connor HT Image
NEUCHATEL, Switzerland, July 2 (Reuters) - Denmark's Signe Bruun won't be holding back with her tackles when they kick off their Women's Euro 2025 campaign against Sweden on Friday, with the attacker still smarting from a 6-1 Nations League defeat by the Swedes in Stockholm last month.
Bruun got the assist for Denmark's goal that evening, but it was about the only thing that went right for the Danes as they conceded three goals in the opening 11 minutes to their Scandinavian rivals en route to a heavy defeat.
"It was a tough, tough game. We were so disappointed, it hurts. We kind of took a step back, looked at some basic stuff, and now we're building from that one step back to two steps forward," a confident Bruun, her nails painted in Denmark's colours, told Reuters in an interview at the Danish team hotel on Wednesday.
"A lot of the tools, the physical (things), quality on the ball, all this basic football stuff, sometimes you need to reset and go from there."
Playing her club football for Real Madrid, the forward said she is used to dealing with the kind of heatwave that currently has temperatures soaring in Switzerland, and she expects plenty of open play form the 16 teams at the tournament.
"I think more teams will play out (from the back), play possession football. I also feel like the tactical aspects of women's football has improved over the years, and I think we'll see that in this tournament as well, so I expect good football," she said.
"I mean, we want to play, we want to be good on the ball, but we also want to play to our strengths. We want to be strong, we want to be a team that's difficult to play against, score a lot of goals, but also try to keep the clean sheet and do everything we can in that way."
Warming to the subject, Bruun said she would not be backing out of any challenges against the Swedes when the game kicks off in Geneva on Friday.
"I'm always a hard-working player, and if I need to put in a tackle, I'm going to put in a tackle. So if that's what it takes for me to help the team, I'm going to do that, but I'm around the box, I want to score goals and I think that's where my strength is," she said.
Denmark are in Group C along with the Swedes, Germany and tournament debutants Poland. (Reporting by Philip O'Connor; Editing by Ken Ferris)