MY ACCOUNT
Belgium are through to the knockout stages of a Women’s European Championship for the first time in their history after beating Italy to edge out Iceland.
In contrast, their quarter-final opponents Sweden coasted through Group C, finishing top on goal difference after scoring eight in their three outings.
Peter Gerhardsson’s side are clear favourites heading into tonight’s clash at Leigh Sports Village. However, they do not have the best record having lost seven of their last nine knockout matches.
Ahead of this evening’s fixture, we identify some of the key factors to look out for.
Goals, goals, goals
Only two teams (England — 14, Germany — nine) can better Sweden’s return of eight goals in the group stage.
Five strikes against Portugal certainly boosted their tally — but they had more shots than the Netherlands in a 1-1 draw, before attempting three times as many as Switzerland in a narrow 2-1 victory. That 5-0 triumph was therefore very much on the cards.
You can expect a similar pattern of play to emerge against Belgium after Ives Serneels’ outfit were peppered with shots in all three group outings.
Italy managed 20, Iceland attempted 23 and France racked up 27 efforts in their 2-1 win.
It might well be one-way traffic once again — and if Sweden have their shooting boots on, they could surpass their haul of 13 goals at Euro 2013.
Making history
Monday’s narrow 1-0 win over Italy did not send shockwaves across Europe — but it was a monumental result for this Belgium team.
Speaking after that match, Serneels explained the result’s significance.
He said: “This is an historic night for Belgian women’s football.
“I’ve had a lot of good moments in my career but this is definitely up there. This might be the best moment yet.
“It has been a long time in the making. I’ve been with the Belgian women’s national team for 11 years now. So I’m ecstatic that we’re going to the quarter-finals!”
Clean sheet key
Belgium won just one of their group stage matches, which also happened to be the only time they kept a clean sheet.
And they may need to shut out the opposition once again tonight, due to their lack of goal threat.
The Red Flames scored just three times (the joint-fewest), had the fewest shots (21), the least attempts on target (11) and the lowest expected goals total (2.6) in the group stage of the eight quarter-finalists.
If Belgium are able to repel Sweden’s attack, they might have a chance of progressing — but if they concede, it will be a monumental struggle.
Burst the dam
Sweden’s Stina Blackstenius had more shots on target than any other player in the group stage (seven).
However she only managed to convert one of these — and that was in stoppage time of the final game against Portugal.
The 26-year-old will need to be more clinical, though this evening’s opponents should still be on high alert.
Arsenal’s No25 is regularly getting into dangerous areas and it can only be a matter of time before those attempts turn into goals.
After all, she finished with seven strikes in just 631 minutes of action for the Gunners last season.
Exploiting weaknesses
The biggest strength for Sweden at this tournament has been their set-pieces. They have scored the most times (five) from corners and free-kicks — a whopping 62.5% of their total goals.
By comparison, Belgium have conceded three in total and two have been via set-pieces.
Dead-ball moments have been the Red Flames’ undoing, so they will need to pay particular attention to that area when the action gets under way in Leigh this evening.
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