‘Not great’ – Mark Parsons not confident on injured duo but optimistic for Netherlands chances

The reigning champions had to come from behind after the restart, with Jill Roord salvaging the nation a point after Jonna Andersson’s first-half goal.

The Dutch lost goalkeeper Sari van Veenendaal and centre-back Aniek Nouwen to injury, and although Parsons admits their prognosis is “not great”, he is remaining optimistic about his side’s chances in the tournament.

“The first half was tough but we got some good moments when we played some possession football,” Parsons told UEFA.com.

“It wasn’t enough, the spaces were big so it meant Viv [Miedema] and others had to do too much running. I was pretty disappointed with the goal. The second half was better, and there’s more to come.

“’Not great’ is the only thing I can say [about the two injuries]. You’ve got two players in tears who are very proud of what the team did.”

Sweden coach Peter Gerhardsson was pleased with how his side played and particularly with how they dealt with Netherlands’ famed attack.

“We forced them to play a lot of long balls, Kosovare [Asllani] did very well in her pressing. And we had just one problem left – Miedema, she is so skilful, we had to double up on her.

“That was also something we needed three centre-backs for, to keep her back to goal. But you can’t keep [a player that good] away for 90 minutes and she did a fantastic thing [to create the equaliser].”

Netherlands now turn their focus to Portugal on Wednesday, while Sweden will play Switzerland on the same day.