The first match in the quarter finals of the Women’s Euro should be something of a gruelling war of attrition by the looks of it. You have the host nation the Netherlands who have found a way to squeeze through each of their group stage matches, taking on the experienced Swedish outfit who had mixed fortunes through their group stage campaign.
Punters are going to have a tough time splitting these two ahead of the contest but it is the winning form of the Netherlands which is shading things as they go at 7/5 with 10bet to take the victory.
This will be the second meeting between the two nations this year with the Netherlands having eked out a win over the Swedes back at the Algarve Cup in January. But in the overall head to head, it is Sweden who are ahead but will they be able to pick themselves up after a confidence-blow in a loss against Italy in the group stage? Will it be the Netherlands who just edge through with their hot momentum going? It should be tight, it should be fascinating as the two meet in Doetinchem on Saturday.
Netherlands Form
The host nation won all three of their group stage matches. None of them were particularly comfortable wins though as the Dutch squeezed through each of them with a one goal winning margin. They beat Norway and Denmark by a 1-0 scoreline and then they edged past Belgium 2-1 in their final group stage match. So there is credit due to them for having found ways to put the wins on the board. That is what tournament football is all about. This will be the fourth time that the Dutch have been in the quarter finals and they have won just one of those three, a penalty shootout victory over France in 2009.
Sweden Form
The Swedes were in a tougher group than the Dutch were as they had to compete with favourites Germany. They rolled out a good 0-0 draw against the Germans in their opener before landing a comfortable win over Russia to make themselves qualification contenders in the group. But in their final group stage match, their unusually reliable defence crumbled as the already-eliminated Italians went out with a bang, beating the Swedes 3-2. Because Russia lost against Germany in the other match, the Swedes still qualified, but that will have been a huge wake-up call. If the Swedes get through this, they would reach their ninth semi-final at the Women’s Euros.
News
The head to head in competitive meetings between the two nations is even at two wins and two draws each from previous European Championship matchups. Those were all qualifiers though and this will be the first meeting between them in the Finals itself. Their last competitive meeting was a 1-1 draw in the Olympic Qualifiers back in March 2016, which was enough to get Sweden to Rio (where they won silver). Overall they have met 19 times (which includes friendlies) and Sweden have a W10 D4 L5 record against the Netherlands. The two met in the Algarve Cup (a friendly tournament) back in March and the Dutch landed their first win over the Swedes since 1992 in the game with a 1-0 victory.
Top Betting Tips
You have to look under 2.5 goals at 4/5 with bet365 for the game because there shouldn’t be much splitting these two up. Sweden will have been rocked by that loss against Italy, while the Dutch are carrying momentum, but they haven’t met anyone of Sweden’s calibre yet. The Swedes are massively experienced and have quality up front in Schelin and Blackstenius. It wouldn’t be a big surprise if this goes beyond 90 minutes and the experience of the Swedes To Qualify at 11/10 at William Hill has some very nice appeal.