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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Georgina Turner

Ding ding, round two

Group A action again tonight, which, if you're anywhere near England's north-west, means digging out that 30ft England flag again and heading down to Ewood Park, where the hosts face Denmark.

The Danes are a very strong side, they blend experience [players like Merete Pedersen, who scored 12 goals in 15 games coming into this tournament, and hard-working midfielder Anne Eggers Nielsen] with youthful exuberance [look out for Nanna Johansen, who has a ridiculous amount of talent for an 18-year-old], and they're second favourites with the bookies to get out of the group.

But wait just a second. When they met last year, England battled to a 2-0 win – and they've gone unbeaten since then. The hosts will again have the bulk of the crowd behind them [11,000 tickets had already been sold yesterday, and word is that staff at the City of Manchester stadium sold 3000 tickets in the three hours before Sunday's match, so fingers crossed for another good showing], and this time they can't be half as fazed by it.

There's a lot to be said for momentum and I'm saying Hope's girls can take at least a point here – and if they can take all three, they're through to the semis. It'll be down to keeping things tight and disciplined at the back, so we'll hopefully see Faye White stay on the pitch for the whole 90 minutes, and a bit more talk from Jo Fletcher in goal. I wouldn't be surprised if England reverted to a more familiar 4-4-2 formation for this one either.

With all that in mind, the sensible money would be on the draw, but once again, I've been whistling the national anthem as I bet and stuck a fiver on England to win at 11/5.

Up in Blackpool, meanwhile, Finland have the unenviable task of taking a point off Sweden if they're to stand a decent chance of getting past the group stage.

They may have given the nervy host nation a scare but if England had converted the glut of chances they created about three-quarters of the way into the game, the Finns would have been dead and buried – and you can rely on Hanna Ljungberg and Victoria Svensson to do exactly that.

In Laura Kalmari and Heidi Kackur Finland have a pair of strikers who don't seem to realise they're playing for the underdogs, and they'll try all night, but the Swedes are a different proposition entirely.

My money's firmly on the girls in yellow – and with measly odds of 1/3, I've even gone so far as to spend 15 whole pounds.

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