“It’s very weird because I haven’t slept a lot in the last few days but I still have a lot of energy because it feels so good!”
The words of Sweden’s No.1, Hedvig Lindahl, who became a mother for the second time with her partner last week before flying out to La Manga, Spain, over the weekend to join the Swedish national team ahead of their match against Mark Sampson’s England on Tuesday.
But the Chelsea Ladies goalkeeper is now looking forward to meeting up with some familiar faces on Tuesday with no less than five of her club teammates in the Lionesses squad. With only Millie Bright playing in the 1-0 defeat to Norway on Sunday night, Lindahl could come up against Claire Rafferty, Karen Carney, Gilly Flaherty, and Gemma Davison if they are selected tomorrow.
After two years of training at Cobham in South London, Lindahl admits she’ll be giving her defenders some tips on how to deal with the pace and skill Davison and Carney in particular hold between them.
“Of course, you have to,” she laughed. “I know their strengths but obviously it’s a delicate task, our players know enough about Karen and Gemma already but I’m Swedish right now and we want to beat England. Whatever information has to be said will be said and I’m sure they’ll give away my weaknesses too!
“We train against each other every day, of course it’s a little different when it’s a game but we’re used to it. We know a lot of players in a lot of teams — it’s a small fish pond.”
On a more serious note, Lindahl expects a tough match between the two sides when they meet at the Pinatar Arena and the 33-year-old believes England’s lineup will be significantly different to the one that lost to Norway.
“Both teams will want to come away with a win, England came with quite a big squad so I expect they will have a lot of fresh players. I saw their game against Norway and they only have one day’s rest and a lot of Chelsea players didn’t play,” Lindahl said before jokingly adding, “There are probably a lot of Chelsea players who want to beat me too!”
Last year was incredible year for Lindahl, coming off the back of an FA WSL and FA Cup double with Chelsea, the Swede was one of five nominees for PFA Player of the Year (won by Manchester City’s Izzy Christiansen) and her performances between the sticks earned her a spot in the PFA Team of the Year.
Lindahl topped that with a string of impressive performances at the Rio 2016 Olympics, helping to see off both the world champion United States and hosts Brazil in successive penalty shootouts before picking up a silver medal after defeat to Germany in the final.
While Tuesday’s match against England is no Olympic final, Lindahl says winning “earns respect” and expects both sides to want to bounce back from their respective defeats to Norway.
“It’s down to individuals and how you experience a win or loss at this time of the year,” she said. “For myself, I don’t think it means too much but winning gets you respect, if you always win you get respected.
“I remember playing back in Sweden, if you got a win against Umeå IK it was always a special feeling because they won everything. It is the same in France when you beat Lyon, it’s a big hurdle so if you can keep winning then it’s great. This match in itself is not the end of the world but of course we want to win.”
With no guarantees Lindahl will start the match after only just joining up with the squad in La Manga, the goalkeeper says neither side will want to risk players who aren’t fully match sharp.
“You might not see players who aren’t fully fit, but everyone who is fit and ready will want to play and want to win but it’s also a chance for some of the younger players, too.”
And Pia Sundhage isn’t short on those, striker Stina Blackstenius in particular shooting herself straight into the limelight in Rio last year before earning herself a move to France with Montpellier over the winter.
Lindahl goes on to state no matter who plays, there’s not really such a thing as a “friendly” in a footballer’s mind.
“Whatever teams you see out there — English or Swedish — they’ll want to win.
“I think the only difference compared to an Olympic final is what risks do you take to win? Do you risk a player who is fifty-fifty? You wouldn’t take that risk at this point in time so it will be interesting to see who plays.”