A beautiful strike from Danielle van de Donk gave the Netherlands their first win at the Women’s European Championship with a 3-2 win over Portugal. In the same group “C”, Sweden also recorded their first success, beating Switzerland by 2:1. Thus, the two teams with victories now have 4 points each and are very close to the next phase.
The Netherlands team led by 2-0 until the 16th minute, but the Portugal team equalized to 2-2 with goals from Diana Silva and Carole Costa from the penalty spot. In the 62nd minute, Danielle van de Donk scored her second goal of the match with a powerful shot from 20 meters, which will probably claim the most beautiful goal of the European Women’s Championship.
Portugal could have equalized but Ana Borges, playing her 146th captain’s match, was disappointed to see the referee flag her late goal for offside.
At the Bramall Lane Stadium in Sheffield, Sweden surprisingly defeated Switzerland by 2:1. After a goalless first half, Fridolina Rolfoe opened the scoring in the 53rd minute for the Scandinavians, but Ramona Bachmann equalized two minutes later. Hanna Ulrika Bennison secured the victory with a pinpoint shot in the 79th minute.
Until now, two teams have qualified for the quarter-finals and these are the hosts of the championship from England from group A, as well as Germany from group B. Today are the second matches in group “D”: Italy vs Iceland and France vs Belgium.
