The Swedish favorite position is not so strange.
All blue-yellow players except one have, after all, lived longer than the Luxembourg women's national team has existed.
Hanna Wijk is the exception, but it's by a hair's breadth. The 20-year-old, the youngest in the Swedish national team that tonight takes on Luxembourg at Stade Émile Mayrisch in Esch-sur-Alzette, was born in December 2003 – barely half a year after the Luxembourg women's national football team saw the light of day.
It also took another three years, until November 2006, before Luxembourg's women played their first international match.
Never met before
Sweden's women's national team has never faced the nation before.
I absolutely don't know much about them. We've checked out a few small clips, but we haven't gotten a huge impression. I have no idea how they'll line up against us, says English-based Sofia Jakobsson.
Anything but an easy Swedish victory in the double match against Luxembourg would be a huge blue-yellow fiasco. Luxembourg is ranked 116th in the world and has basically only faced one top nation in recent years.
In the qualifying for the 2023 World Championship, Luxembourg faced current world number two England – with two 0–10 losses as a result.
We're obviously favorites, says Swedish midfielder veteran Kosovare Asllani.
They lost to England with 0–10, but they've also played evenly against other teams. But it's clear that it's a team that might park the bus and defend, which most lower-ranked teams do against us. It's a match we should win.
Kickoff 19.30
If Sweden advances, another playoff awaits in the November-December shift. A win there – Serbia or Bosnia-Herzegovina will provide the opposition – gives a spot in the European Championship in Switzerland next year.
On paper, everything suggests that Sweden will easily dispose of Luxembourg. But they've stumbled before. A qualifying loss to Ukraine in 2018 (0–1) and an early deficit away against Latvia in 2019 (4–1 in the end) were lessons learned, says Sweden's national team coach Peter Gerhardsson.
We have to watch out for counter-attacks. And then we know what a set piece from the halfway line can mean. The Latvia 1–0 will always be in this team's memory. It was a free kick that they lifted up and then we were down 0–1, says Gerhardsson.
Luxembourg-Sweden kicks off at 19.30.
