Since England at the same time defeated Ireland 2–1, three Swedish points at Gamla Ullevi is not enough to take the second direct place to the EC behind France.
However, Sweden already knew before the meeting with France that Tuesday’s match, the last in the qualifiers, would be decisive – and it showed.
Union captain Peter Gerhardsson already admitted that he had many different things to take into account, not least the threat of suspension hanging over six of his players ahead of the all-important qualifier against England on Tuesday.
We know that we are strong at home at Ullevi. We had a very good performance against England away last time (1-1 in April), says Josefine Rybrink and continues:
We have to take the feeling from that match with us, and also that above all we play a good second half here against France. We get to take a few practices, gather energy and go out and have a good match.
Asllani on the bench
Only two got a place in the starting eleven – Linda Sembrant and Jonna Andersson – while among others Kosovars Asllani and Magdalena Eriksson started on the bench.
Also entered was the young Milan striker Evelyn Ijeh, who thus had to make his debut during his first A national team meeting.
The unexpected Swedish starting eleven had little to offer against the star-studded French team in the first half, and when the home team took the lead it was not at all illogical – even if the goalscorer was unexpected.
In 74 international matches, Sakina Karchaoui had scored one goal, and that on a penalty.
There were sparks about her second goal in the French jersey. The ball rolled back towards the 28-year-old after a French corner and the left-back from Paris Saint-Germain did what no unaccustomed goal scorer usually does and fired in Zecira Musovic’s far cross from about 25 meters away.
“Sour”
Sweden had difficulty getting the game in order, didn’t get any really sharp scoring chances at all and when France took the lead, the prognosis felt bleak.
Still, the 1–1 goal came at the start of the second half.
Jonna Andersson hit a corner that touched a French skull before the ball landed in front of Josefine Rybrink’s feet. In his first competitive international match from the start, the Häcken defender scored the first national team goal of his career.
Very funny. Great fun to score your first goal. At the same time, it’s also sad that it doesn’t mean much in this match anyway, to not get any points, she says.
The match opened up, spaces were in no way lacking and the question was instead which of the teams would make the best use of the opportunities once they appeared.
The answer was France.
If Karchaoui is a top scorer, Friday’s match winner is anything but. Marie-Antoinette Katoto, also a native of PSG, stayed in front of a new French corner, poked in 2-1 and thus maintains her brilliant goal average.
The winning goal – which earned France a place at next year’s European Championship in Switzerland – was her 30th in 40 senior caps.