Women Euro 2022: Parsons urges the Netherlands to be ‘braver’

The reigning champions were outperformed during the first half but after tweaking things at the interval, they grew into the contest in the second half. Proud of his side's second-half performance, Parsons is now keen to see more of that playing style as the

looks ahead to facing Portugal and Switzerland over the next week.

“Second half was much better…we dared to play, but there’s more to come in bringing our attacking qualities,”

Parsons said as he reflected on the game

.

“It was fun to see that when Viv and others had the ball, Sweden just wanted to drop [deep]. We’ve got to be braver to get those moments – when you lose your captain and lose a centre-back, the mindset and emotions can be all over the place – but everyone stayed calm.

“Disappointed that we couldn’t get a couple more chances because we had them on the ropes in the second half. We’ll take the point, put Viv in the fridge, recover, get ready for the next game.

“We knew we were going to have to grow into the tournament and now we look forward to being better with the ball and creating more chances.”

Parson admitted the first-half injuries suffered by the goalkeeper and captain Sari van Veenendaal and centre-back Aniek Nouwen might suffer the Dutch side. However, the Arsenal's Dutch player, Miedema, took the time to reflect on the incredible atmosphere that

endured.

“My mum and dad were part of that…they said it was amazing,”

Miedema commente

d.

“I’ve said it so many times before [that] our fans are probably the best fans. There were a lot of Swedish fans as well, which was amazing. I think the atmosphere was amazing for both teams and we’re lucky to have those fans with us.“

The Netherlands will face

and Switzerland over the next week.

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