Everton’s Björn wanting to be the player to rely on as Sweden begin the knockouts | OneFootball

Many expect Sweden to go all the way in the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 yet they have slightly underwhelmed with some of their performances so far.

A disappointing draw against a below par Netherlands side and a narrow victory over Switzerland had many scratching their heads. Sweden then lay down a performance that made many sit up and take notice, their 5-0 victory over an impressive Portugal team gave fans cause to wonder ‘have Sweden finally arrived?’”

As such, the viewing audience looked at their quarter-final with Belgium with eager eyes, and perhaps even more eagerly when the Nordic side were dealt with some serious blows. The Swedes will be without Hannah Glas and Emma Kullberg for their knockout tie with The Red Flames after both tested positive for COVID-19 with potentially more positive cases to be announced.

With captain Caroline Seger also expected to miss out due to injury, the responsibility now turns to Everton’s Nathalie Björn to plug the gap that Seger has left behind.

“I’ve grown into it more and more and I’m becoming a better midfielder but it is difficult,” Björn said. “I feel more comfortable in the role I’ve been playing previously (in midfield).

“I want to be a player you can count on when the difficult games come up.”

With so many absentees at such a crucial point in the tournament, when her side just looked to be finding their stride, it could have been a great concern for any player but not for Björn.

She said “Of course, it’s a big blow but we have players who can step in. I’m not too worried because we have a good squad.”

With potentially just 90 minutes separating the number two-ranked side in the would and a semi-final clash with England, Björn could be forgiven for looking at tomorrow’s opponents and turning slight focus ahead to a meeting with the host nation. Yet, the Sweden number 14 maintains her laser-like focus is on the task in hand.

“The England game was very entertaining as someone watching football,” Björn said. “If we win, we know that we’re going to play England but first of all, we’re going to have to play Belgium.

Regardless of their slow start to the tournament, it is highly-expected that Sweden will swat aside their Belgian counterparts and ease through to the final four but Björn is not naïve to those expectations.

She said “We have a lot of full-time professionals and we receive a lot of pressure because of that but we have to respect Belgium because they’re here. It’s not going to be an easy game because we have to go out there and perform as well as we possibly can to win.”

This is only the second occasion in which Belgium have appeared at a UEFA Women’s EURO and the first time that they’ve made it out of the group therefore anything beyond this point is a bonus. As for Sweden, however, with the weight of expectation on their shoulders, they know that a defeat would be the shock of the tournament thus far. With sides like Norway and Italy disappointing in the group stage, this competition is not shy of a few giant-killings. The Swedes will undoubtedly need players like Björn to step up when called upon to ensure that this doesn’t happen.