In 2015 three major football tournaments are played around the world: FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada, Under 21 European Championships in Czech Republic and Copa América in Chile. The playoffs have begun in all tournaments:
FIFA Women’s World Cup
The first round of the play offs (16) has been played and with Swedish eyes we can state that Sweden sadly didn’t went through to the quarter finals this time. They got beat by Germany 4-1 fair and square and the yellow and blues didn’t reach normal standard in this tournament. However, since many other European teams also didn’t make it to the next round, Sweden will be able to qualify to the Olympic games in Brazil 2016. The qualifiers are played between Sweden, Norway (who got beat by England 2-1), Netherlands (lost against Japan 2-1) and Switzerland (lost against the host nation Canada 1-0). In the other matches, China won against the only African team in the play offs, Cameroon, 1-0. United States eliminated Colombia 2-0 and Australia managed to eliminated Brazil 1-0 which means there are no South American teams left in the tournament. France won against South Korea 3-0.
This gives us the following quarterfinals:
China – USA
Germany – France
Australia – Japan
England – Canada
While we though Norway would reach the finals in an earlier post, now we have to replace them with Japan. However, Germany still stands as heavy favourites to the gold.
U21 European Championships
Unlike in the Women’s World Cup, in the European U21 Championships Sweden have made success with a second place in their group, which means a) semifinal against Denmark and b) a spot in the 2016 Olympic games in Brazil where the team might get a supreme reinforcement in Zlatan Ibrahimovic (every team in the tournament can have three players over 21 years of age). The other semifinal is played between Portugal and Germany. Both matches are played June 27. The final is played July 5.
Copa América
The play offs in Copa América have just begun. We will update the results in a later post as the quarterfinals progress. In the first matches Chile and Peru have advanced by beating Uruguay and Bolivia. In the other half of the play off tree, Argentina will play Colombia and Brazil Paraguay. Chances are we will see Lionel Messi face a Brazil without suspended Neymar in the semifinal.
