Williamson wary of 'fantastic' Sweden after going under the radar at Euros

Leah Williamson said it was "slightly disrespectful" that England's quarter-final opponents Sweden had flown under the radar after a strong start to their Euro 2025 campaign. 

England booked their place in the last eight with a 6-1 thrashing against Wales, finishing second in Group D to France, who took maximum points from their three matches. 

The Lionesses' reward is a clash against Sweden, who also stayed perfect in the first phase of the competition, concluding their Group C fixtures with a 4-1 rout of Germany. 

England have won just one of their last six meetings with Sweden across all competitions (D3 L2), with the most recent two ending in draws in qualification for this tournament. 

In the group stage of Euro 2025, no team recorded a higher expected goals (xG) figure than both England and Sweden (9.34 xG). 

Only Spain (14) scored more goals than Sarina Wiegman's side (11, level with France), though Sweden still managed to find the back of the net eight times in their respective group. 

And while England are favoured by Opta's pre-match simulations to get the job done this Thursday at 49.4%, Williamson was wary of the challenge that lies ahead. 

"Sweden are a fantastic team, they're relentless in the way they go about their game," Williamson said.

"I think they sort of avoid the expectations of every tournament, and nobody really talks about them, [which is] slightly disrespectful, I think.

"Because they always show up, and always seem to pose a threat to most teams, and normally come out with a medal or [be] a semifinal team, so, yes, they're a strong team."

This match will be a repeat of the two teams' semi-final clash at Euro 2022, where England prevailed 4-0 to reach the showpiece match at Wembley. 

In fact, Sweden had never lost to the Lionesses in their four previous games at the Euros before that final four clash three years ago. 

They are also one of only two teams to eliminate England from the knockout stages of the competition twice, alongside Germany (1984 final, 1987 semi-final).  

But for midfielder Georgia Stanway, she said there was little point drawing any comparisons between this match and the one that took place at Euro 2022.

"It's a completely different tournament," Stanway said. "It's really hard to compare anything that happens in other tournaments.

"Our focus is on us, our focus is on making sure that we know our things going into the game. I think we just need to continue where we've been.

"Have the intensity that we had against the Netherlands, press the way we pressed, win the ball back as much as we did [against Wales]. We can only control what we can do."