Sweden stand-in captain Kosovare Asllani has criticised UEFA for "using 50% fewer cameras" at the women's European Championship than the men’s, labelling the situation a "catastrophe".
The Swedes will take on hosts England, who progressed with a hard-fought 2-1 extra-time victory over Spain in the last eight, in front of a packed Bramall Lane in the first of the semi-finals tonight (Live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player).
Peter Gerhardsson’s side have had five goals ruled out through VAR en route to the semi-finals and lodged a complaint over the decision to disallow Rebecka Blomqvist’s goal for offside during their 2-1 win over Switzerland on 13 July.
Rebecka Blomqvist had the ball in the back of the net but VAR has ruled it out for offside.#rtesoccer #weuro2022
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) July 13, 2022
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VAR has also come in for criticism from those watching Euro 2022, given the amount of time it has been taking to arrive at decisions during matches, and Asllani believes it is due to a lack of cameras.
"Using 50% fewer cameras in our tournament than the men’s game, that is a catastrophe really," the 32-year-old said.
"The decisions can’t be made with the same precision. It’s not just for us, for other teams. There are situations where I think you should have more cameras, that can be really decisive."
Gerhardsson, Sweden’s head coach, claimed former official Jonas Eriksson pointed out the alleged error for the Blomqvist goal.
"If you’re talking about the complaint our staff made, it was obvious," he said. "We hadn’t seen it ourselves but a Swedish referee pointed out they drew the line incorrectly.
"You are incompetent at your job if you are doing it that way. There shouldn’t be a difference if it’s women’s football or men’s football. Of course it’s not good enough.
"My feeling is sometimes we put too much trust in it. Even if it’s an offside that’s very obvious then you wait for the VAR decision, you don’t know until the ref whistles if it’s a goal or not.
"We’re going to have to hope that they’ve looked at improving themselves for the semi-final."
England manager Sarina Wiegman says England want to "inspire the nation" when they face Sweden tonight and has stressed the need to "be in the now".
Wiegman said: "The England team is ready to play their best game, and hopefully we inspire the nation.
"I hope the fans are going to bring us lots of energy again. We'll do that ourselves, but it was really an extra thing, an extra dimension, what we got in our last games, and that’s really exciting. We hope we’re going to make them proud again."
England have lost in the semi-finals at each of their last three major tournaments – Euro 2017, where they were beaten by hosts and eventual winners the Netherlands, then managed by Wiegman, and the World Cups of 2019 and 2015.
When asked about those previous last-four exits, Wiegman – in charge of England since last September – said: "I think it’s necessary to be in the now. I do think you always have to learn from your experience and take out the things that you can take, to become better and learn.
"But it’s no use now to talk about that all the time, because it’s now, it is now. So why should we talk about that all the time?"
The Lionesses, seeking a first ever major trophy, and first appearance in a final since Euro 2009, are going up against a Sweden outfit lying second, six places above them, in the world rankings.
Gerhardsson’s side reached a final last summer when they were Tokyo Olympics runners-up, and two years earlier beat England 2-1 to finish third at the World Cup.
Wiegman said: "I think it’s going to be a very tight game. We know they’ve performed really well over the last years, they’ve always performed really well in the women’s game, they are number two in the FIFA ranking.
"It’s going to be a difficult game, I think totally different to what we had against Spain, because they have a different style of play. But we’re prepared."
Last Wednesday’s quarter-final saw England, after conceding for the first time at the tournament, fight back to beat Spain 2-1 after extra-time, and Wiegman said: "We had a little setback, of course that’s part of the game too, conceding a goal, but we stayed calm, we stayed trying to play our game and then the result came. I think we’re really strong and we can handle some setbacks.
"I think going through that and being that successful…really helped the team and really showed our resilience and it’s a big step in our development."
Watch the Euro 2022 semi-finals, England v Sweden on Tuesday and Germany v France on Wednesday, with RTÉ Sport. Live television and streaming on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player with news and a live blog on RTÉ News app and on rte.ie/sport.
