Chelsea: Eriksson, Lindahl lock out Canada to advance to WWC quarterfinals
By George Perry
Two more Blues secured their place in the Women’s World Cup quarterfinals, thanks to a save from their recently-departed Chelsea FCW teammate. Sweden’s win over Canada takes Magdalena Eriksson and Jonna Andersson through to a match against Germany.
Hedvig Lindahl added to the list of historic bullet-points on her CV on Monday, becoming the first Swede to save a penalty kick in the Women’s World Cup. Lindahl fully read Janine Beckie’s intent for her 66′ penalty and dove to her lower right corner to palm the hard, well-placed shot to safety. It was the only shot on goal the former Chelsea FC Women’s keeper faced all night, as Canada had good penetration into the box but could not finish with productive chances.
Lindahl’s Chelsea teammate Magdalena Eriksson secured the left side of Sweden’s defence. The Swedes’ defence and Canada’s attack kept the game very narrow, with Eriksson almost reprising her usual Chelsea role as a centre-back despite lining up as Sweden’s left-back.
Eriksson and centre-back Linda Sembrant, who plays for Montpelier, played smoothly off each other, given their respective versatility. If Sembrant came out to support Eriksson as she marked Canada’s Nichelle Prince or Jessie Fleming coming down the left, Eriksson could easily drop back to cover central defence if they switched markers and one of the Canadian forwards moved towards the centre.
Just pause to imagine, for a moment, what it would be like if Chelsea’s men’s first team had a centre-back who could come out to defend 1v1 on the right as seamlessly as Cesar Azpilicueta can drop in as centre-back.
Eriksson’s experience as left centreback for Chelsea was just one aspect of Sweden’s overall fluidity. Sweden manager Peter Gerhardsson has his side looking like a Jose Mourinho team, seamlessly moving through formations based on the context of the game. From their base formation of 4-2-3-1, Sweden shifted through 4-4-2, 4-1-4-1 and 3-5-2, with Eriksson the usual full-back to take station on the back line to support the right-back moving forward.
Eriksson rounded out her performance with a powerful headed shot on goal – one of three for the Swedes – midway through the second half.
The victory keeps nine Chelsea FC Women’s players on three teams in the Women’s World Cup quarterfinals. That number will drop dramatically later this week when Norway faces England in a virtual Kingsmeadow derby.
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After that game, the only way Chelsea players will square off will be if Sweden and the winner of Norway – England reach the finals.