It was a fixture that had promised a show and it delivered. Sweden embarrassed Germany after Carlotta Wamser’s bizarre handball save reduced Christian Wück’s side to 10 players and handed them a two-goal deficit that would grow to three.
Jule Brand had put Germany ahead early on before Stina Blackstenius levelled and the teenage full-back Smilla Holmberg gave Sweden the lead. Then came Wamser’s incomprehensible save with her hands to deny Fridolina Rolfö, who converted the resulting spot-kick before Lina Hurtig scored Sweden’s fourth late on.
There may have been only top spot to play for, with both teams already qualified, but it was still a game that mattered, from a momentum point of view and in terms of whom they play next. With the winner facing second place in Group D, probably England, and the runner-up playing the winner of Group D, likely to be France, there is little difference in the quality of quarter-final opposition. However, finishing top has put Sweden in the kinder side of the draw, only facing Spain, the favourites, if they reach the final.
Peter Gerhardsson said: “I don’t know,” when asked if it was a statement win. “We know when we came into this tournament that we only take one step at a time,” said the Sweden coach. “First Denmark, then Poland, then Germany. Now we have a quarter-final. I am not a dreamer thinking of winning the gold medal … Maybe it is a dull answer but that is how I work.”
There is history between Germany and Sweden: they met in the quarter-final of the 2019 World Cup in France, Sweden emerging the victors, before going on to beat England in the bronze-medal match. Generally, though, fortune has favoured the Germans. They had 21 wins and two draws in 31 meetings before kick-off at the Stadion Letzigrund and had not lost to Sweden in the six times they had met at the Euros, including the 1995 and 2001 finals, winning five and drawing once. They also met in the 2003 World Cup final, which Germany won thanks to a golden goal.
It was far from a foregone conclusion that history would repeat itself though. Poland put up an impressive fight against Wück’s side, while Denmark could feel aggrieved they had not walked away with at least a point after a controversial winner for Germany gave them all three points in Basel.
In a frenetic start both teams fired warning shots within minutes of kick-off. It was a sign of things to come and in the seventh minute Germany took the lead. Wamser threaded the ball to Brand, who had left Jonna Andersson for dead and slotted past Jennifer Falk.
The majority German crowd roared, but they were soon drowned out by the block of yellow behind Falk’s goal. Wück’s team had considerable success on that right-hand side, Andersson and her teammates on the left-hand side for Sweden looked as if they were running through treacle when attempting to track the runs of the players in red, but Germany could not capitalise. They were punished soon after. Blackstenius received the ball just inside the Germany half and was given all the space in the world to run into on the right before she slipped the ball past Ann-Katrin Berger and in.
A chaotic second for the Swedes followed, as 18-year-old Holmberg’s energetic run into the box from the right was unchallenged until Sarai Linder stuck out a foot and the ball took a strange double deflection off the defender and then the young full-back, and flew in.
The Blågult should have extended their lead twice in quick succession, first when Blackstenius curled a left-foot effort over and wide and then when Berger’s poor ball out from the back was leapt on by Johanna Rytting Kaneryd, who went through one-on-one but inexplicably chose to square instead of shoot, allowing Germany to clear.
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An almost identical move yielded the goal that would put them two clear. Rytting Kaneryd’s pull-back was met by Rolfö this time, the Barcelona player fired goalwards and Berger was at sea but the ball was pushed wide by the hands of Wamser. It was a ludicrous decision from the full-back, who received a straight red and will miss their quarter final. It was even more foolish given Wamser came into the side after the medial ligament injury suffered by Giulia Gwinn that ruled the Germany captain out of the tournament.
“The red card was decisive,” said Wück. “After the penalty and with one player less on the pitch it was clear that we could not come back against this Swedish team. In the second half changing the system I imagined we could get another chance or two, but with one player less and the quality of the Swedish team it was almost impossible to fight them.”
The sting was taken out of the game in the second half, but a late effort from Hurtig put the cherry on top of a clinical performance for Sweden, the forward, who has joined Fiorentina from Arsenal this summer, tapping in Rytting Kaneryd’s ball into the middle.
It was an uplifting win for Sweden, who despite looking defensively frail at times remain one of the tournament’s most promising teams. Meanwhile, Germany must regroup and find a way to cope without their first- and second-choice right-backs.
