Herlovsen spurred on by memories

Norway striker Isabell Herlovsen cannot wait to line up against Sweden in the quarter-finals of UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™ on Friday and given her record against the Nordic nation she has every right to be excited.

Fond memories
Four years ago in England, seven days shy of her 17th birthday, Herlovsen scored the second goal in a 3-2 victory over Sweden which secured Norway a place in the final of the UEFA European Women's Championship. Last month she was at it again, this time striking the only goal of the game in Enkoping as Norway inflicted their neighbours' first loss of the year in what was both countries' final friendly before travelling to Finland.

Improvement sought
"Yes, they're a team I enjoy playing against," the Kolbotn IL player told uefa.com. "We played well in Enkoping and I hope we can do it again. Our attacking play has to be better but we have been very good defensively so far and I'm looking forward to playing against Sweden again."

Encouraging performance
The victory in Sweden on 19 August was a welcome fillip for Bjarne Berntsen's squad who, until that point, had won just one of their previous six matches in 2009, the first of which was a 5-1 loss to Friday's opponents in a January friendly played in Spain. Sweden's form has been very different to say the least, but Herlovsen thinks there is little to separate the two teams. "We played very well last month, it was a very compact game," added Herlovsen, who lost her record as the youngest player to appear in a EURO final tournament when Ukraine's Oksana Yakovyshyn featured against the Netherlands in the opening game. "I don't think Sweden are that much better than we are but they do have some stars like Lotta Schelin and many others, so it will be a tough game."

Scoring feats
Herlovsen's effort against Sweden four years ago came a week after she had earned her country a 1-1 draw against France and, in doing so, became the youngest goalscorer in a EURO final tournament aged 16 years 351 days. Continuing her trend of rising to the big occasion, Herlovsen also struck the winner against host nation China in the last eight of the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup yet, although she welcomes them, personal plaudits are not so important to the German-born forward.

'Confident'
"It doesn't matter who scores, the important thing is to win and I hope we can do that tomorrow," she said. "We're in the quarter-finals and we are very happy with that but we have also been in the semi-finals [four years ago] so we hope to beat Sweden and I’m confident we can do that."