England 1-1 Sweden: Lionesses held to draw in first Euro 2025 qualifier
- Published
- comments
Women's Euro 2025 qualifier: England held to 1-1 draw by Sweden
England's defence of their European title got off to a disappointing start at Wembley Stadium as they were held to a draw by Sweden in their first Euro 2025 qualifier.
Alessia Russo nodded in Lauren James' clever cross in the first half but Sweden equalised through Fridolina Rolfo later on when she crept in behind Barcelona team-mate Lucy Bronze to head in at the back post.
It was an unconvincing performance from Sarina Wiegman's side, who have been drawn in a tough qualifying group with two of the world's top six and know they need to take advantage at home.
In a repeat of the Euro 2022 semi-final, in which England thrashed Sweden 4-0, this was a much more evenly balanced encounter with Sweden carrying great threat on the counter-attack.
England's inability to control possession led to several chances, including a huge one for Arsenal striker Stina Blackstenius in the second half when she was played in behind the hosts' defence, only to shoot wide from close range.
Rolfo had earlier dragged a shot wide from another counter-attacking move and the Lionesses created very little - two very late efforts from Lauren Hemp and Beth Mead were their best chances of the match.
England's qualification route is not easy - only the top two teams from their group qualify automatically for next summer's Euros in Switzerland, with the other two sides entering the play-offs.
They also face France, ranked third in the world, and they travel to Dublin on Tuesday to take on the Republic of Ireland (19:30 BST kick-off).
"Sweden are a very tough opponent. I do think we could have done a couple of things better," said England boss Wiegman afterwards.
"We want to learn from these games and do better every game as other countries want to do too. It shows how close and how tight our competition is."
Deflated Wembley as Lionesses fail to impress
The stadium announcer at Wembley welcomed England as the "European champions here to defend their title" with great enthusiasm - but it was not the exhilarating match many had hoped for.
An early challenge on Russo, which led to her needing medical attention for a cut to her shin, meant there was a lengthy stoppage and England took a while to find their rhythm afterwards.
Russo's infamous backheel in the semi-final two years was in the memories of many fans as they headed to Wembley on Friday and she had her moment again but this time it was not enough to lift the crowd.
Paper planes were thrown around the stands and fans shone their phone camera lights in the second half as the atmosphere dipped in correlation with England's performance.
Sloppy in possession and lacking creativity up front, this was not the vintage England that won Euro 2022.
Their task is to qualify from the toughest group on paper and this was not an ideal start, albeit against a strong Sweden side who will fancy themselves to go all the way in Switzerland next year.
The visitors were well organised in defence and strong in their press, with manager Peter Gerhardsson saying they had a plan to "take away Keira Walsh" and prevent the England midfielder from having an impact.
"The number one [plan] was to take away Keira Walsh and then you can disturb her," he said.
"It's more that we tried to press so their faces were down and they can't make the decisions. Today for our number 10, it was all about taking away Keira Walsh, but we will not play that way at home."
It was a moment of quality from James which teed up Russo's goal - a lovely, dinked cross from the right which the Arsenal striker only had to nod over the line - but Bronze's lapse in concentration, allowing Rolfo to creep in behind, proved costly.
At the venue the Lionesses lifted the trophy two years ago, this was not the same feeling at full-time as many left Wembley feeling deflated at an underwhelming start to the qualifying campaign.