European Football Championships | The goalkeeper renting bouncy castles and smearing vaseline on the post was to prevent Belgium from going on – then Sweden struck

Sweden–Belgium 1–0

Football of women Fifa ranking second country Sweden advanced late on Friday evening to the EC semi-finals in Helmarien Tuija to Hyyryse familiar By Linda Sembrant with a last minute hit.

Sembrant, who defended in Juventus with Hyyrynen between 2019 and 2022, shot the ball past Belgium’s hero goalkeeper Nicky Evrard behind with overtime already looming.

Evrard was still boxing Kosovare Asllanin corner kick into wider waters and stretched his legs by Nathalie Björn in front of the shot, but Sembrant’s return ball was too much.

The 35-year-old defender’s shot sank into the Belgian goal when the game clock showed 90+2 minutes. Sweden won 1–0 and advanced to the semi-final against England on Tuesday.

“Absolutely amazing. It’s hard to describe in words the sight when the ball went into the goal”, Sembrant delighted the Swedish public broadcasting company of SVT in the interview.

“This is absolutely crazy.”

Sweden won the scoring situations of the match 34–3, but it was a great fight to take the 19th-ranked Belgium in Fifa to overtime.

“We needed a goal, so it was really nice that it happened before overtime,” Sembrant said.

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“This is absolutely crazy.”

The first Belgian goalkeeper Evrard, who is playing in the EC playoffs for the first time, was awarded as the best player of the match.

Evrard, who made eight saves, is not only a world-class goalkeeper, but also an entrepreneur who rents bouncy castles. The business started semi-accidentally, when Evrard was involved in organizing sports camps before the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

The organizers had also prepared for the little brothers and sisters of the children coming to the camps on the bouncy castle.

“When we wanted to buy one, the seller surprised me by asking if I would be interested in his business,” Evrard said on Friday Uefa on the website.

The 27-year-old goalkeeper thought about it for a moment. He was able to support himself with football because he lived with his parents. Evrard stated that he wanted financial stability, decided to leave playing Fifa video games for less and take a step towards entrepreneurship.

“In the beginning there were six bouncy castles. Now there are already nine,” the goalkeeper said.

In addition, he has equipment for transporting bouncy castles and equipment for filling them. The next step is to hire a brother to share the workload.

“When you go somewhere with a bouncy castle, everyone is happy. They want me to come but not to go. The party is over if I pull the plug.”

Bouncy castles are not the only specialty associated with Evrard. He revealed to the Belgian last week For Sporza smearing Vaseline on the goalposts before matches.

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“In the beginning there were six bouncy castles. Now there are already nine of them.”

Swedish and the Ukrainian referee who officiated in the Belgian quarter-final match Kateryna Monzul has traveled a longer distance to the European Championships than many others.

The 41-year-old chief judge from Kharkiv had to flee his homeland when Russia started its bloody war of aggression against Ukraine at the end of February.

“When the war started, at first no one could believe it was true. My family went to my parents’ house and we practically lived underground, in a special place, for five days,” Monzul said Uefa on the website.

Finally, Monzul went on a long escape with his two siblings and their three sons. The road led through Moldova, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to Germany.

“It was stressful and difficult. When we left Ukraine, we had no idea what our next step would be.”

Another of the assistant referees in the quarter-finals was also Ukrainian. Maryna Striletska fled from Luhansk to Switzerland after the war started.

“I can’t talk to Maryna only about things related to judging, but also about my personal and normal life. It’s really helped me and I’m happy to be here with him.”