Sweden v England LIVE: Latest team news and line-ups from Euro 2025 qualifier

England are unbeaten in their last two meetings with Sweden (W1 D1) and could go three in a row without defeat versus the Swedes for the second time after a run of four draws between 1979 and 1983.

Sweden are unbeaten in four previous home meetings with England (W3 D1) with the most recent of those coming in a July 2013 friendly in Uddevalla, when the Swedes ran out 4-1 winners.

Overall, only Germany (21) have beaten the Lionesses more often than Sweden (15).

Sarina Wiegman makes three changes to the starting line-up for England’s match against Sweden. Maya Le Tissier and Alex Greenwood drop out of the defence with Millie Bright and Lucy Bronze brought back in.

Further up field Jess Park drops to the bench after impressing against Republic of Ireland with Ella Toone back in as her replacement.

England XI: Hampton; Bronze, Bright, Williamson, Carter; Walsh, Toone, Stanway; Mead, Russo, Hemp

Sweden XI: Musovic; Lundkvist, Sembrant, Eriksson, Andersson; Angeldal, Asllani, Olme; Rytting Kaneryd, Janogy, Rolfo

Leah Williamson also provided an insight into how it feels to captain her country and play for the Lionesses saying: “I love playing for England, anyone who gets to wear this kit is very lucky.

“It’s been an exciting time, it’s a pressurised situation and it’s competitive football. We’re trying to qualify for a tournament we won last time.

“I’m always chasing a certain level of consistency, which is a challenge in itself.”

Leah Williamson wants the Lionesses to regain their cutting edge in front of goal and start putting away chances when they create them.

Speaking about the 2-1 win over Ireland last Friday the England captain said: “In every game we’ve played we’ve had the opportunity to score a lot more, which would make those moments that we get a bit nervy not so nervy. It’s not a lack of concentration or trying, it’s just the way they’ve gone.

“We could have put them to bed a lot earlier.

“Friday night against Republic of Ireland was another example of that when we could have scored more goals. Obviously winning 2-1 sounds a lot closer than we would have liked considering how we dominated.”

The England women’s team watched the Euro 2024 final together from their hotel in Gothenburg ahead of their qualifier and were saddened when Gareth Southgate’s side lost.

Sarina Wiegman is one of the few who can understand what Southgate went through as she took charge of the Lionesses for the 2023 World Cup final defeat.

“First of all it took me three weeks to get over it,” Wiegman said, “No it’s very hard, when you give everything and then it can go both ways of course, because you have an opponent who really wants to win too and has those qualities too, so when you have given your everything you hope you win and then when you don’t win you’re really disappointed.

“You start thinking ‘did we get everything out of ourselves?’ ‘did we do everything that we could?’ what was in our control, and then you have to accept it.

“It’s easier to accept a win than to accept a loss but for me it took a while.”

The Lionesses captain said she was ‘devastated’ for the England men’s team after their 2-1 defeat to Spain in the Euro 2024 final but looked for the silver lining that winning a trophy will feel ‘sweeter’ when they finally get over the line.

“Devastated for them, especially knowing some of them personally as well,” Williamson said, “I think what Gareth and his team have done over the last three or four years, reaching finals and giving us that…bringing that dream closer to reality.

“We are very lucky as fans of England, men’s and women’s, to be in that position that we’re in. We didn’t quite get over the line, to a fantastic Spanish team and I know they’ll be devastated about it.

“It will take them a while I think, to get over it. But us as a country, we’ve been blessed with incredible tournaments and when those wins come, which I do believe they will, then they will be even sweeter.”

Part of that was the atmosphere, as much as the painful late defeat. Southgate decided to stay after the 2022 World Cup because he felt the team was in a good place and there was no real issue with a mere quarter-final elimination. England narrowly lost a 50-50 game against France, so the mood towards Southgate was positive.

After this Euros, it was anything but. Throughout the tournament he repeatedly made reference to the fan opprobrium and the beer cups being thrown at him. That will to castigate Southgate – his “professional capability… questioned beyond belief”, as he put it – has similarly sat alongside the wider punditry discussion around the team.

That went from one extreme to another over Euro 2024. Southgate is said to have been irritated by the extent of the criticism from pundits he knows personally.

The Lionesses have faced some criticism for their performances since losing the World Cup final as they have been unable to replicate the ruthless nature of their play that saw them triumph at Euro 2022.

Sarina Wiegman isn’t too concerned and spoke about the evolution her team is going through saying: “We know what we’re working on, we know what direction we want to go in.

“When things go really well we try to stay neutral because we know what we are doing and why we are doing it. And then when things don’t go that well we also stay neutral and keep working on the things it’s good to work on to improve.

“We never play a match to draw, we play the match to win. And if we win the game we might even win the group too. We’re approaching the game to win and we’ll see what happens.”