When Sweden won the World Cup bronze this summer in New Zealand and Australia, national team captain Caroline Seger announced that she was satisfied after five world championships.
Now there is also a big risk that the Olympics in Tokyo 2021 will be her fourth and last Olympics. After 1-1 at home against Italy in Malmö, the chance of Sweden reaching the Olympic Games in Paris this summer is minimal. Blue and yellow no longer have it in their own hands.
— It’s very sad. It’s a situation we’ve never been in, that we’ve never made it to a championship, says Caroline Seger after the draw at the Eleda stadium.
“Feeling pretty good”
She met the journalists with a bandage around her head after a collision in a nod duel with an Italian after just over an hour.
— It probably looks worse than it is. I just remember lying on the ground, I don’t know what happened. I feel pretty good. A little sore and a little headache, but that’s okay.
World champion Spain now leads the group with a maximum of twelve points – five points ahead of second place Sweden. There are six points left to play for, but if the group finale against Spain in Malaga on December 5 is to count for anything, the Spaniards must drop points in the next round at home against Italy.
— It’s a tough group and then there are must-matches. We have the world champion in the group that is where they are for a reason. We knew going into this qualifier that we needed to win all the games more or less, says Caroline Seger, who against Italy made her 240th international cap.
There are only twelve places in the women’s Olympic tournament – compared to 16 for the men. Seger would like to see an increase in the number of seats. Only three of them go to European national teams.
— There has been talk about it for a long time and people have tried to get it done, but the decision is slow. It’s a shame, because I think it could easily have been at least four more teams, says the 38-year-old.
“Also getting tougher”
In the past, WC placements have determined which national teams reach the Olympics, but now it is decided via the A groups in the Nations League and a playoff next year with semi-finals and final. A European place goes to host nation France.
– It will also be tougher. In the WC we came third and normally we would have taken an Olympic place then, but even now we hadn’t done it the old way, says Caroline Seger.
With the old qualification system, the two remaining Olympic places would have gone to World Cup winner Spain and opponent England, but the two final teams, like Sweden, must try to qualify for the Olympics via the Nations League.