PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Sweden has had great success in the football World Cup.
Now one of the blue-yellow heroes is criticizing the Swedish people.
– Many have thought that it will be difficult for us, says Filippa Angeldahl to SportExpressen.
After a full pot in the group stage, Sweden has lined up two straight feats in the WC finals. First a penalty victory against the world number one USA in the round of 16 and most recently a very strong 2-1 victory against the successful team Japan in the quarter-finals.
Sweden’s success
Now Spain awaits Tuesday in the World Cup semi-finals and Blue and Yellow now enter the final stage of the tournament to make up for the medals in earnest. At the same time as the interest has grown ever greater for our soccer ladies from home in Sweden and the support is getting stronger.
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Which the players really feel on the sidelines of the matches.
– It’s fantastic to feel that support from home. And look how much it means to people who don’t even know us, says the defender Nathalie Björn to SportExpressen.
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The blue-yellow criticism
Despite the fact that Sweden has now reached at least the semi-finals in four consecutive championships, the players still feel that the expectations for them were not at all very high ahead of the World Cup. On the contrary, they feel that you have had to strike from below and at the same time have convinced many.
– We have had some good performances now and surprised the Swedish people a little, admits Johanna Rytting Kaneryd for the evening newspaper and thinks above all about the matches against the USA and Japan.
– They were favorites in advance and we have shown that we can get past those opponents. The performance against Japan I think was one of our best performances in the championship. We know what we can do. Since then we have had both good and less good performances, but I think we have really stepped up and that might be a surprise.
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Even the teammate Filippa Angeldahl, penalty scorer against Japan, is of the same opinion and now comes with unexpected criticism of the Swedish people. After the great success that Blågult has delivered in Australia and New Zealand, where they have so far been limited.
– Yes, but we have surprised a bit, I think. Many have thought that it will be difficult for us, but we have always had faith in ourselves. We know how good we are and we know we are good in championships, she says in the interview.
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It remains to be seen if Sweden manages to make it all the way to the coveted World Cup final. On Tuesday morning, we will get the answer when they settle with Spain for the final place.
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