Facts: Gerhardsson’s “zeros”
On 13 occasions, Sweden’s national football team has gone goalless from an international match with Peter Gerhardsson as national team captain.
0–0 v Denmark (home), 7 April 2023, friendly match.
0–0 v Germany (away), 21 February 2023, friendly.
0-4 v Australia (b), 12 November 2022, friendly.
0–4 v England (neutral ground), 26 July 2022, EC semi-final.
0–0 v Australia (h), 15 June 2021, friendly.
0-1 v Germany (n), 4 March 2020, Algarve Cup.
0–0 (0–1 after extra time) v Netherlands (n), 3 July 2019, WC semi-final.
0–2 v USA (n), 20 June 2019, World Cup group stage.
0–0 (5–6 on penalties) v Canada (n), 6 March 2019, Algarve Cup.
0–0 v South Africa (b), 22 January 2019, friendly.
0–1 v Italy (b), 9 October 2018, friendly.
0–1 against Ukraine (b), 12 June 2018, World Cup qualifier.
0-0 v France (b), 27 Nov 2017, friendly.
Since the fall of 2017, when Peter Gerhardsson took over from Pia Sundhage, Sweden’s women’s soccer team has played 76 international matches. Only ten have ended with a loss (after full time) and rarely has Sweden left the field goalless.
But now, for the first time under Gerhardsson’s leadership, there have been two matches in a row, away to Germany in February and against Denmark in Malmö on Good Friday.
— Against a better opposition, it is more difficult to score goals. Both against Germany and Denmark we have chances, but it’s the efficiency – we have to score goals, says Gerhardsson.
The next international match awaits on Tuesday, against Norway at Gamla Ullevi in Gothenburg. Although there are over 100 days to go until the World Cup opener against South Africa on July 23, it is actually the last official international match for Sweden before the championship.
“Frustrating”
A third straight zero is best avoided.
— We will do everything we can to make a better performance on Tuesday. Hopefully it results in goals as well, says Chelsea defender Magdalena Eriksson.
The Swedish players are not satisfied with the effort against Denmark. In contrast to the 0-0 match against Germany in February, where Sweden created many sharp scoring chances, hot Swedish situations were few and far between on Friday.
— I don’t think we create enough dangerous chances to score goals. It speaks for itself. If we don’t create enough, there won’t be goals. It’s a bit frustrating, says right winger Johanna Rytting Kaneryd.
TT: How important is it not to go to the WC with three straight zeros?
— We always want to win football matches. And if we had created a lot and felt that we were really there, I would probably have had a slightly different feeling. But now it’s frustrating. Hopefully we will do a better match against Norway and create more going forward.
No adjustment game
Barcelona star Fridolina Rolfö was visibly frustrated when she was substituted in the second half.
— I was not satisfied with the performance. You want so much with this team, it’s getting closer to the WC and you want it to go well, so it’s clear that you get frustrated when we don’t get everything working, says Rolfö.
For her, it was above all the usually aggressive Swedish press that, for once, did not succeed. Sweden therefore did not come up with many sharp counterattacks to speak of.
— Against Germany, I felt that there was a lot of struggle, a lot of duels and a lot of transition play. In this match, we basically have no transition play at all. Denmark were very collected and quickly back on the right side. It won’t be that we get to do what we do best.
The Swedish players still do not feel any major concern due to the lack of efficiency. Several times in the past six months, Sweden has shown that it can be loosened. Against China in February, for example, it was 4–1 after Sweden went up to a 3–0 lead after only a quarter of a game.
— Denmark did well and was very compact, then it is difficult to create goal chances. However, I think we have a lot of half-chances, so I’m not too worried, says Magdalena Eriksson.