Caroline Weir on brutal England, struggling holders and Euro dark horses | OneFootball

Scotland international and Real Madrid star Caroline Weir has joined OneFootball for an exclusive column on Euro 2022 this summer! Here she previews the quarter-finals.

So that’s it, the group stages are over already and it’s on to the quarter-finals. Where to begin?

I was watching France play Iceland on Monday night, and obviously France had already qualified, but you wonder how much they will miss Marie-Antoinette Katoto now she is injured.

When massive players like that get injured it gives others opportunities and sometimes they don’t have as much pressure on them to perform. You could see that with Melvine Malard. She came in and scored right away.

The French squad have a lot of quality players and while I think Katoto is a massive loss, you need more than one good striker to go far or even win a tournament like this. They look good and you see that quality in depth even when they make subs.

They’ll face the Netherlands in the quarter-finals and the Dutch aren’t really doing it for me. You could see how they struggled against Portugal.

You never want to judge a team too much in the group stages, and they obviously got through, but that is the least they should do with that squad. They have some top, top players and a lot of experience but I don’t think there’s enough to them as you get to these deeper stages.

It’ll be an interesting game and with the talent they have they could still surprise us. Vivianne Miedema could return and it’ll be a massive boost if she is back and passed fit. It’s not easy coming back, she will have been doing some training on her own, it’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Sweden topped the group with the Netherlands and it’s just classic Sweden.

They’re always right there at the start, being talked about, and then they go about their business so quietly. With them there aren’t any truly massive names. They have the talent with Kosovare Asllani and Fridolina Rolfö but they’re just a proper team and you can see that in the way they play.

I’m not surprised they ended up flying through the groups and scored five against Portugal the other day. They’re coming off the back of a silver medal at the Olympics but people just aren’t speaking about them. England are hosts and they’re getting all the hype – Germany too – but Sweden are a team I really like.

Austria might make it a bit tricky for Germany but I would expect the Germans to come out on top.

They look so sharp, they play with so much intensity and they have experience as well. You never know on the day but, similar to Sweden, I think Germany have just been going along efficiently.

And then there’s England taking on Spain. England have named the same lineup in every game so far and that’s good for the players that are playing, you get a lot of momentum and confidence but for the players that don’t play or aren’t coming on that can be hard.

Sarina Wiegman has done that the whole time since she arrived and, from what I’ve heard from the England camp, everyone knows where they stand: you’re a starter or a sub or a squad player. It sounds brutal but it’s working so far.

Physically the players have enough time to recover and they have access to the best recovery methods and equipment. Mentally they’ll also be fine too, it’s a home tournament in their home country, they’ll be enjoying every minute.

As much as she has her team, her 13 or 14 players, you need to be performing, you have to be on your toes and she’ll make decisions quickly if you aren’t. It’s really interesting to watch.

You see how it’s working for someone like Beth Mead. The stats speak for themselves there, she’s having a fantastic tournament off the back of a really consistent season with Arsenal – she’s flying and it’s nice to see.

There will be periods when Spain keep the ball and that will be part of England’s gameplan as well, to sit in and not be too eager. You can’t write Spain off and they’ll have chances, Marta Cardona has looked quite bright but, without Alexia Putellas and Jenni Hermoso, they have struggled to get going at times.

I think England will win to set up a semi-final date with Sweden.