The semi-final against England, which will be played on Tuesday evening, will be a match that Sweden’s spearhead in the attack, Stina Blackstenius, is looking forward to.
– It will be the biggest challenge in this championship and our biggest test. With a strong group game and win against Spain behind them, they should carry a good amount of confidence with them. But it is a challenge we are looking forward to, to play against England on their home ground in a semi-final, it will be incredibly fun, says Blackstenius.
After the quarter-final against Belgium, several experts in the English press believe that Sweden is not that scary. Do you understand them?
– Partially. Some have probably expected more from our game. But at the same time, the results have been with us. I also think that we have a tendency to be strong against strong opposition. It’s something we definitely want and need to pick up in this match. Hopefully, there will be slightly larger surfaces for us to work on compared to a low and defensive Belgium. It could probably be to our advantage.
Do you yourself feel that the game has been hacked a bit?
– Yes, from time to time I think. We felt in the beginning that there was more to get out, that the potential was much higher than what the game showed. It can create frustration but I think we’ve stood straight in this and know where the goal is.
“Pretty uninteresting”
Although Stina Blackstenius can understand where the criticism against Sweden comes from, teammate Linda Sembrant does not attach much importance to it.
– The talk here and there about favorites and so on is quite uninteresting as a whole. We’re going to play the semi-finals against England and it’s going to be really cool, says Sembrant to SVT Sport.
How much will you need to improve to make it to a final?
– We will have to put in a very good performance, it really is required. We have parts we would like to step up from yesterday, but it will be a completely different game than it was against Belgium.
CLIP: Sembrant saved Sweden in the EC quarter-finals
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