The expected meeting between Sweden and the Netherlands in the opening round of the European Championship ended in a 1–1 draw. The studio was surprised by the change in Sweden’s defensive formation in the middle of the match.
Holland and Sweden tied the scores in Saturday night’s expected meeting of the champion candidates in Sheffield.
At the same time, the record set in the match between Finland and Spain on Friday was broken for the number of spectators in a match where the host country of the tournament is not playing. New record readings are recorded in the form of 21,342 viewers.
For Holland, the match got off to a sad start already in the first minutes, when the team’s goalkeeper Sari van Veenendaal collided with the free kick while reaching with two defenders of his own team. The players collected themselves for several minutes before the game could be resumed.
None of the players in the situation were immediately out of the match, but van Veenendaal had to be replaced ten minutes later. The goalkeeper was holding his shoulder, which was hurt in the collision.
He stepped into Holland’s goalmouth instead Daphne van Domselaarfor whom the international match was only the second in his career.
Van Domselaar was immediately put to a tough test when Sweden constantly played the ball deep into the Dutch penalty area. In the end, hard work produced the opening goal, which he was the creator of Kosovare Asllani.
Asillani teased the ball between the defender’s legs, crossed and Jonna Andersson shot the ball in.
For Holland, the bad news continued at the end of the first half, when the topper got a leg injury Aniek Nouwen was kicked off the field.
– The situation is not good. That’s all I can say. There are two players in tears who are very proud of the team’s performance, the Dutch coach Mark Parsons commented fresh after the match.
The experts were confused by the changes in Sweden’s playing style
At the beginning of the second half, Holland put the attack gear on. The team quickly received several corner kicks, but did not manage to score an equalizing goal.
In the end, the equalizer came from a direct attack. Sweden’s progress towards the goal stopped for a moment at the edge of the penalty area, but the ball still ended up through the legs of the defense To Jill Roord. Roord was grateful for the opportunity and leveled the match with a shot into the back bottom corner.
– The goal came from the things that were thought about in the studio: possession, quick counterattack and especially Vivianne Miedeman gaming. On the other hand, Sweden also didn’t let the pressure go and gave a passing gap, from where the ball went to Roord. A great finish with one touch, analyzes Urheilu’s expert Jonne Kunnas hit.
Municipality and Maija Saari wondered after the match in the studio why Sweden changed its way of playing for the second half of the match.
– Sweden changed from 5-4-1 to a 4-4-2 defensive formation and it opened up more space for Holland to attack between the lines. Holland improved and got into the game better, Kunnas stated.
In the end, the meeting between the two champion favorites was as even as expected. The draw also dispelled concerns about whether Holland is ready to defend its European title.
– In a certain way, the Netherlands also reduced concerns about bad performances before the Games. The games will only become more interesting from now on, Saari estimates.
Ten minutes before the end of the actual playing time, the Netherlands had one more name added to the injury list, when Danielle van de Donk had to be replaced ahead of time. Van de Donk’s injury was already the team’s third for the Sweden match.
At the end of the match, no additional goals were seen, regardless of the places, so the teams tied the points like the previous meeting between Switzerland and Portugal in Group C. The situation in the group is even more exciting when all the teams are equal after the first round of matches.
The European Championship continues on Sunday with two matches, Belgium – Iceland and France – Italy. The broadcast of the matches starts on TV2 and Areena at 18:30. You can find everything about the competition on the EC competition page here.