Eriksson shared her thoughts with the official Chelsea website about overcoming Thailand to reach the final 16 of the tournament, facing the USA in their next game and her change of position at international level.

Blues’ centre-back has played 90 minutes in both of Sweden’s group stage matches so far and has established herself as an important member of the Scandinavians backline at left-back.

‘It’s very different and it took some time for me to get used to it. But in these games it’s very fun and I can join in on the attacks and do some crosses. These games have been fun but of course I feel more at home as a centre-half,’ she said.

Sweden dominated the match against Thailand overall, but switched off in added time and allowed their Group F opposition to score a consolation goal.

‘I thought we started the game really well, the first half we dominated and played really good football, but I think in the second half we had a period where we played poorly which invited them into the game.

‘We gave them too many chances so we need to look into that and improve on that for Thursday when we play the USA. It’s really annoying that we let that goal in and didn’t finish the game with a clean sheet and like I said it’s something we need to look at.

‘They had a really fast player, we knew she was going to be quick, but I still think we should have dealt with not losing the ball in the centre of the pitch and how we set up behind is something we need to improve on.’

Sweden’s next task is their clash against the USA, in Le Havre on Thursday 20 June and the teams have met each other at the group stages of every World Cup since 2003. The Scandinavians have lost two, drawn one and won one and the 26-year-old is excited by the prospect of facing the three-time champions.

‘I’m expecting it to be a massive game, it’s really inspiring for us to have a game like this so early in the tournament and it will be good to see where we’re at as a team.

‘It’s going to be completely different to these two games that we have had against Chile and Thailand, so we just need to prepare for that.

‘It’s good to see where you’re at against the best in the world. They are ranked no.1 so it’s going to be a really good game for us whatever the result and now we’re through we can relax and see where it takes us.’