The Swedish national team made it to Euro 2020 from second place in the group, in which they lost first place to Spain, but managed to bypass strong Norway and Romania. In 2021 Janne Andersson’s wards perform beyond praise. In seven matches the Scandinavian national team won six victories and only once drew. In the qualification for the World Championship in Qatar, the “yellow-blue” defeated Kosovo (3:0) and Georgia (1:0), after which the team won all three test matches. It should be noted that the team conceded only in 1 of 7 matches this year. In the first game of the European Championship, the nominal hosts held out in a duel with Spain (0:0), which became a good incentive and for the second match brought the Swedish squad a victory over Slovakia (1:0). In this game everything was decided by a penalty kick in the 77th minute, which was brilliantly realized by Forsberg. Sweden has achieved four points to date and secured a place in the playoffs.
The Spanish national team has almost completed the generational change in the national team. If at the stage of selection for Euro 2020 the “red fury” confidently prevailed in the group with strong Romania, Norway and Sweden, then the start of the selection at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar showed that the composition is young and raw. A draw in the first qualifying game with Greece (1:1) and difficult victories over Georgia (2:1) and Kosovo (3:1) alarmed fans, but they believed in the team. In the first match of the long-awaited European Championship, Luis Enrique’s charges played in Seville, while at home they could not open the Swedish defense. The total advantage in terms of statistical indicators was not reflected on the scoreboard and 17 shots against four of the guests towards the goal did not affect the result. In the second match the Spanish team opened the scoring already in the 25th minute, after a shot by Morata, but could not maintain the advantage. In the second half, Lewandowski shot, who equalized, after which Moreno missed his chance with an 11-meter mark. Before the final stage, the Spanish national team is in third place in the group.
