Sweden vs Belgium Women's EURO quarter-final preview: Where to watch, kick-off time, predicted line-ups

Sweden meet Belgium at Leigh Sports Village in the UEFA Women's EURO 2022 quarter-finals on Friday 22 July.

Where to watch Sweden vs Belgium on TV

Fans can find their local UEFA Women's EURO 2022 broadcast partner(s) here.

What do you need to know?

Sweden arrived in England with many – not least themselves – tipping them to go all the way. They made a sluggish start against the Netherlands and Switzerland, but evidently got into their groove in Sunday's demolition of Portugal – timing is everything at tournaments.

Belgium's trajectory has been similar: second best in their draw with Iceland and beaten by France before coming good on Monday with an impressive win against Italy that took them through to a first ever quarter-final.

Starting line-ups

Sweden: Lindahl; Ilestedt, Sembrant, Eriksson, Nildén; Angeldal, Asllani, Björn; Kaneryd, Blackstenius, Rolfö
Misses next match if booked: Magdalena Eriksson, Johanna Rytting Kaneryd

Belgium: Evrard; Deloose, Kees, De Neve, Philtjens; Biesmans, Vanhaevermaet, Minnaert; Cayman, De Caigny, Wullaert
Misses next match if booked: Feli Delacauw, Davina Philtjens, Justine Vanhaevermaet

Reporters' views

Alexandra Jonson, Sweden reporter

Sweden are favourites; anything other than a win will be seen as a failure. After a slow start to the tournament they looked sharp against Portugal, but Sweden will be eager to show that have higher gears they can switch into. Coach Peter Gerhardsson has yet to feature the same starting line-up twice, showing his squad's impressive depth: that could be important against Belgium, and even more so should they progress further.

Alyssa Saliou, Belgium reporter

Belgium's primary target for these finals has already been reached: qualifying for the quarter-finals. Now they have made it this far, the Red Flames can dare to dream of even more. Sweden are definitely a cut above Belgium on paper, but the performance against France in the group stage showed that Ives Serneels' side can handle big opponents. There is no pressure on Belgium; they have nothing to lose. Could that be an advantage?

View from the camps

Magnus Wikman, Sweden assistant coach: "Belgium are relatively good at everything and maybe that will mean this match has more flow than our previous ones."

Magdalena Eriksson, Sweden defender: "Belgium seem like a very well-coached team. They played like a team and through every third of the pitch you can see they have a clear ethos. Even when they played Italy, who were higher-ranked, you could see that they had their idea and they went with it. They really look like a strong group."

Fridolina Rolfö, Sweden forward: "[Being favourites is] something we have to learn how to handle. We have come here saying that we want to go a long way and we need to show that too. We are expected to win this match; now we have to live up to that. We want to fight for the medals so we have to win this match and demonstrate what we can do."

Tessa Wullaert, Belgium forward: "We have reached our goal, but we will go for it 100% against Sweden. We have had one day less than Sweden day to recover, so it is important to rest well. We don't have much to lose, but we're certainly not going to make it easy for them. We have to prove to ourselves what we can do. We'll see where that takes us."

Form guide

Sweden

Group C winners
Netherlands 1-1 Sweden (Sheffield)
Sweden 2-1 Switzerland (Sheffield)
Sweden 5-0 Portugal (Wigan & Leigh)

Story so far: Sweden came to England with high expectations, partly heaped on by themselves: they are here to win. That remains the goal now they have qualified from the group, but performances have not necessarily lived up to the pre-tournament talk. Some aspects of their play looked smoother against Portugal, not least their set-piece threat, and there was a noticeable step up in intensity too. They will need to improve again, though, if they are to go all the way.

Women's EURO best: Winners (1984)

Previous Women's EURO quarter-finals
04/09/2009: Sweden 1-3 Norway (Helsinki)
21/07/2013: Sweden 4-0 Iceland (Halmstad)
29/07/2017: Netherlands 2-0 Sweden (Doetinchem)

Belgium

Group D runners-up
Belgium 1-1 Iceland (Manchester)
France 2-1 Belgium (Rotherham)
Italy 0-1 Belgium (Manchester)

Story so far: It's been a bit of a rollercoaster for Belgium. Their first objective was to win against Iceland but they had to settle for a point. Then came a France team that had beaten Italy 5-1 but Belgium surprised everyone, playing really well and only losing narrowly.

Against Italy, the mission was simple – to win. That victory means the spectre of disappointment is now gone and the tournament can only be classed as a success. Qualification for the quarter-finals is an historic event.

Women's EURO best: Quarter-finals (2022)

Previous Women's EURO quarter-finals
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