After this summer’s EC tournament, the competition season for the Swedish national team continues with a WC qualifying meeting away to Finland on 6 September. After that, there are more training matches in October that have not yet been confirmed.
However, it is clear how 2022 will end – with an away meeting with Australia. On November 12, the nations play a practice game in Melbourne. Australia is coached by Swede Tony Gustavsson and hosts, along with New Zealand, next year’s World Cup play-offs.
“It feels good that we can end the year by playing away to Australia, which is an interesting opponent to be matched against purely sportingly. In addition, we get a good opportunity to prepare for the World Cup next year by testing, among other things, time adjustment and acclimatization during the preparatory days leading up to the match,” says confederation captain Peter Gerhardsson to the confederation’s website.
The match will be played at the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, which holds 30,000 spectators and is home to the teams Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City. It will host four group stage matches and two round of 16 matches during next year’s WC.
The women’s national team will not play any more matches during that gathering, the Swedish Football Association announces. The Australian national team includes, among others, superstar and team captain Sam Kerr, everyday clubmate of Magdalena Eriksson and Zecira Musovic in Chelsea.
Sweden and Australia met twice during last year’s Olympics in Japan. In the group stage, Sweden won 4–2 and in the semi-final it was a Swedish victory with 1–0. Sweden is already ready for the WC 2023.