Sweden head coach Peter Gerhardsson has defended his decision to allow teenager Smilla Holmberg to take the decisive penalty in last night’s catastrophic shootout defeat against England.
Sarina Wiegman’s defending European champions staged an astonishing act of escapology to secure a semi-final against Italy next week.
The Lionesses recovered from an error-strewn first-half display which saw them deservedly trail 2-0 at the break, to force extra time following two late, quickfire goals from Lucy Bronze and Michelle Agyemang.
A goalless, largely uneventful additional 30 minutes ensued with all the drama reserved for a shootout which saw only five of 14 spot kicks successfully converted.
England veteran Lucy Bronze showed her teammates how it should be done with an emphatic penalty which put her side 3-2 ahead and forced Holmberg to try and prolong the contest.
Ultimately, the 18-year-old was unable to handle the pressure and skied her effort over Hannah Hampton’s crossbar sparking chaotic scenes as England players piled on top of one another to celebrate the most unlikely of wins.
Holmberg, meanwhile, was left devastated and had to be consoled by her teammates in the centre circle.
England vs Sweden penalties
England: ✅❌❌❌✅❌✅
Sweden: ❌✅❌✅❌❌❌
Gerhardsson was heavily criticised for allowing a player of such limited experience to be placed at the centre of such a make or break situation, but the experienced coach insisted he had no regrets.
‘It’s the coaches who decided that,’ he said when asked why Holmberg was asked to take a penalty in sudden death.
‘We have 11 players who can stand there. It’s small margins, it’s very hard to prepare for, it’s been that way all the time.
‘If they miss, someone else should have taken it, and if they score, it was right.
‘You can’t have that kind of hindsight, you have to make the choice.’
He added: ‘Everyone supports her, and not only her – the sadness is not because you are 18, others are just as sad at 27 or 30.
‘What you saw after the shoot-out was support; everyone supported one another.
‘It will be difficult to deal with later, but we in the coaching team made the choice of players, and we have never been cowardly to make a decision, but sometimes things do not go your way.’