Sweden missed the direct spot to the EC.
Afterwards, there were angry faces – over a detail in the match.
– You should be rewarded more, says Nathalie Björn.
The conditions for Sweden were simple in Tuesday’s EC qualifier against England in Gothenburg. It was the last round of the group stage, and Sweden needed to win against England to take one of the two direct spots, and thus to knock England down from second place and avoid a playoff.
Could have been punished
England owned both the ball and the game in the first half and Sweden had desperately struggled to create chances. But after a couple of substitutions by national team captain Peter Gerhardsson, Sweden got into the game, and substitute super-talent Rosa Kafaji could have played a decisive role in a controversial situation with star centre-back Leah Williamson.
In the second half, Kafaji ran deep and poked the ball past Williamson in the penalty area. The centre-back slipped, missed the ball and hit Kafaji on the legs – but the Swede chose to stand up and play on, and tried to find a teammate in the box. Had Kafaji fallen, the referee would undoubtedly have pointed to the penalty spot, but instead, Sweden had to settle for a corner that was unsuccessful. After the match ended 0-0, and Sweden finished third in the group behind France and England, the criticism of the referee was great.
“Wants to play football”
Many, Rosa Kafaji included, thought it was not worth standing up as such action is not rewarded by the judges.
– Now in retrospect, I feel that I should have tested, Kafaji tells Expressen and continues:
– I just thought that I wanted to score, stand up and get a better position. But it was a hard tackle so maybe I should have fallen.
Nathalie Björn is careful to praise Kafaji for actually standing up, but believes that it is wrong not to be rewarded for fair play.
– You must be rewarded for standing up in a duel where you can fall. I want to play football, not stick around and film, but some judges are like that, she says, and is supported by Magdalena Eriksson.
– It is sad that you have to be punished for playing honestly and fairly and trying to play on. It would have been awesome if future referees had read situations and felt that “okay, it still affects her way of getting to the ball”.
For Sweden, a qualifying game now awaits in the form of a double encounter against a nation from the Nations League’s C group.
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