Women's World Cup: Jakobsson's motivation comes from promise to brother

When Sofia Jakobsson's brother was in a coma at Christmas, the Sweden striker promised to play for him at the Women's World Cup.

Published : Jul 03, 2019 02:01 IST

Sofia Jakobsson celebrates her goal against Germany
Sofia Jakobsson celebrates her goal against Germany
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Sofia Jakobsson celebrates her goal against Germany

Sweden forward Sofia Jakobsson has an added motivation to reach the Women's World Cup final this week having told her brother she would be playing for him when he was comatose at Christmas.

The tournament in France was not at the forefront of Jakobsson's mind when she was informed her little brother Anders had been in an accident that meant he was in an induced coma.

She visited him every day for almost two weeks until Anders awoke, and it was her brother she was thinking of when she scored as the Swedes shocked Germany to book a semifinal clash with Netherlands.

READ | Netherlands coach Wiegman hopeful over Martens' toe injury

"I had a really hard Christmas at home, my brother fell on his head and was in a coma for 12 days and they needed to operate," Jakobsson explained at a press conference on Tuesday.

"When he was laying there in the coma I told him I would play this World Cup for him.

"So, it was why I dedicated that goal for him. He's recovered really well. He showed me that he is really strong.

"I talked with him just before the last game. He said that he's really happy for the team and for me. He said that I should go out and play the soccer that he knows I can.

"He said hopefully we will win against Germany and we did, so he was really happy after the game."

Jakobsson has a personal reason to cherish being with her national team in France too having missed the Euros two years ago with a cruciate knee ligament injury.

ALSO READ | Martens will not train to spare sore foot ahead of semifinal

"I kind of felt quickly after my injury that my knee was working really well," she added.

"I didn't have pain. Of course, it took me some time to find my level to get confidence back and also confidence in your knee that it's really strong.

"Right now, I feel really great to be here with this fantastic team and we have played really good football also. I am happy."

Sweden has reached a World Cup final before and is only one place below Netherlands in the world rankings, though it is not dealing with the same level of expectation as Oranje following its Euro 2017 triumph on home soil.

Arsenal forward Vivianne Miedema suggested it was burdened by such belief it would win it all in France, but she thinks it has now started to rediscover the form they showed two years ago.

"At the Euros no one expected a lot for us and once we started winning our country stood behind us and we just kind of got into that flow," she said.

"We came here and in Holland everyone said, 'Oh, they will be world champions'. That gave us a lot of pressure. The first couple of games we didn't always play the best football, but we still got nine points in the group. We're still in the semi-finals right now. I think you can say we're back in that flow."

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