Holders Netherlands held by Sweden to open their defence of their European crown.

By Connor Wagner

Group C remains at a stalemate after Sweden were able to hold Netherlands to a draw at Bramall Lane. A record attendance of 21,342 in Sheffield for a match not involving a host nation at the Women’s Euros.

"20170716 WEURO NED NOR 3450.jpg"By Ailura, Licensed by CC BY-SA 3.0

The task of wining became harder for Netherlands in the first half after they lost both van Veenendaal and Nouwen within the first half.

Potentiallty taken aback by the injury to van Veenendaal, Sweden were able to find the opener and peg Holland back.

Asllani was able to make her way into the area and crossed to Jonna Andersson who was alone at the back of the area. She fired the ball past Daphne Van Domselaar, who had only just come on as replacement for Sari Van Veenendaal in the Dutch goal.

Sweden put themselves in front and tried to maintain their one goal lead to see out their opener at the competition, but the reigning Champions had other ideas.

Just 7 minutes into the second half, Holland were able to get themselves back in the game, and after her performance so far, it came at no surprise that Miedema was involved. She was able to find herself in space, and found a pass to Jill Roord, who was able to create space and her deflected shot found the bottom corner of the Swedish net.

The Dutch pressed for the remainder of the game but were unable to take control of the game. Sweden would continue to apply pressure, firing shots at the Dutch, but to no success.

Both teams will feel like they could have had more from the game but with 2 games left, both teams will look to kick on in their campaign for the European Championship.