Date: Friday, 11 August Kick-off: 08:30 BST Venue: Eden Park, AucklandCoverage: Watch live on BBC One from 08:00 BST, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website & app. Listen on 5 Sports Extra and BBC Sounds. Live text, analysis and report on the BBC Sport website.
Magdalena Eriksson says it would be wrong of Sweden to single out Japan’s Hinata Miyazawa for special attention when the sides meet in the Women’s World Cup quarter-finals on Friday.
Miyazawa is the tournament’s leading scorer with five goals.
“I think that the whole team is a threat,” said former Chelsea defender Eriksson.
“Instead of focusing on one player on this Japanese team, I think it’s important to look at their whole team.”
Miyazawa’s five goals have come from just six attempts on target by the midfielder, who plays in Japan for Mynavi Sendai.
She has helped propel the 2011 world champions to within two wins of a third World Cup final in four attempts with goals against Zambia (two), Spain (two) and Norway.
“The most impressive thing about the Japanese team is that it doesn’t really matter who is on the end of their attacks,” added Eriksson, who recently joined Bayern Munich from Chelsea.
“They are all in sync and have such a clear style of play.”
The winners of Friday’s match at Auckland’s Eden Park play Spain or the Netherlands in the semi-finals on Tuesday (09:00 BST).
‘This won’t be like the USA’
The two nations met at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, with Sweden winning 3-1 on their way to a silver medal.
Japan boss Futoshi Ikeda did not think that quarter-final loss would have much bearing on Friday’s match.
“Our team is very different,” he said. “It’s a different challenge. It’s difficult to compare.”
Sweden, who have never won the World Cup, are fresh from knocking out four-time world champions the USA on penalties.
“This won’t be like the physical game we had against the USA. It will be a lot more technical and fast-paced,” Sweden boss Peter Gerhardsson said.
“When we get possession we will need to move the ball quickly and make the most of our physical advantage.”
Match stats
This will be the fourth meeting between Japan and Sweden at the Women’s World Cup. Japan won the most recent one, 3-1 in the semi-finals in 2011, after losing the first two by an aggregate score of 10-0.This is Japan’s fourth appearance in the Women’s World Cup quarter-finals – they lost 4-0 to USA in 1995, before 1-0 victories against Germany (2011) and Australia (2015).Japan have scored 14 goals at this World Cup, their most in a single edition of the tournament. Sweden have kept a clean sheet in their past three games at the Women’s World Cup, and will be looking to do so in four in a row in the competition for the first time. Sweden goalkeeper Zecira Musovic has a 94% save percentage at this World Cup, the second-best of any goalkeeper (minimum two appearances), behind Jamaica’s Rebecca Spencer (95%).