Swedes and Dutch turn on the style to advance

LONDON • Sweden thrashed Portugal 5-0 to reach the quarter-finals of Women's Euro 2022 on Sunday as holders the Netherlands needed a flurry of late goals to beat Switzerland 4-1 to ensure their progress.

Silver medallists at last year's Olympics, the world No. 2 Swedes are the highest-ranked team in the tournament.

But they failed to hit top gear in their previous group games, drawing 1-1 with the Dutch and squeezing past the Swiss 2-1 in their opening two games.

Peter Gerhardsson's women finally clicked into gear in Leigh to claim top spot in Group C, going 3-0 up by half-time.

Filippa Angeldal struck twice before Carole Costa headed into her own net in first-half stoppage time.

Kosovare Asllani's penalty made it 4-0 and Stina Blackstenius finally got on the scoresheet after having two earlier efforts ruled out.

Sweden will face whoever finishes second in Group D with Iceland, Belgium and Italy all in with a chance to finishing behind already qualified France in yesterday's matches.

"We were really satisfied that we did enough to win the group. That was something we hoped for when we started," said Gerhardsson of their quarter-final tie on Friday.

The Netherlands will face the French in the last eight on Saturday after getting through despite missing their star striker Vivianne Miedema for the second consecutive game owing to her positive Covid-19 test.

Mark Parsons' side lost 3-1 to France in February, but the Dutch coach claimed that defeat was in the past and his players have improved since.

"We're playing a big opponent and so are they. I don't think they want to play us," he said. "The result wasn't what we wanted (last time), but we said that the next time we played them, we were confident that we would be better. We saw opportunity."

In front of a record crowd of 22,596 for a women's Euro group match not involving the hosts, Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic's own goal put the Dutch in front in Sheffield.

Switzerland responded almost immediately through Geraldine Reuteler's cool finish just three minutes later.

A draw would have been enough for Parsons' team to reach the knockout stage, but they made sure of the three points with three goals in the final six minutes.

Substitute Romee Leuchter struck twice, either side of Victoria Pelova's effort, which survived a lengthy video assistant referee check for offside.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE