Johanna Rytting Kaneryd will be outnumbered on Sunday when Chelsea meet Manchester United in the Women’s League Cup final.
As one half of Chelsea’s Swedish contingent alongside Nathalie Bjorn, Rytting Kaneryd is fully aware of the threat her team are up against, with United’s squad containing five of her national team-mates.
Fridolina Rolfo, Julia Zigiotti, Anna Sandberg, Hanna Lundkvist and Ellen Wangerheim – Rytting Kaneryd knows them all well. Zigiotti, United’s dominant midfielder brought in from Bayern Munich last summer, is her closest friend.
Does that mean she’ll be more reluctant to fly into tackles?
‘Hell no,’ the winger tells Daily Mail Sport.
‘When you’re in your zone and you’re in the game you don’t really think. Even if it’s one of my best, best friends (Zigiotti), she’s not going to be my best friend when we play against each other.
Chelsea’s Rytting Kaneryd has emphasised the importance of this weekend’s League Cup in a season riddled with difficulties for the Blues
Man United’s squad contains five of Rytting Kaneryd’s national team-mates, including Fridolina Rolfo (pictured)
‘Obviously she knows how I play and I know how she plays, so I’m just going to have to be extra on it and try to do everything I can to not be an easy player to face.’
Two of them – Wangerheim and Lundkvist – are still fresh to Marc Skinner’s side, having joined in January, and are part of a large influx of Swedish players to the WSL more generally.
‘I don’t know exactly why Swedish players come to this league. Maybe it’s because we have grown up with a similar approach to the physical game and how we organise defensively,’ Rytting Kaneryd says.
‘I think it’s natural for us to want to play in England because it’s similar. We fit in pretty well. It’s really nice to have a lot of us in the WSL because that says a lot about the league and about Swedish players as well. But we have two strong Swedish players at Chelsea too, so let’s go.’
Let’s go indeed. That will be the rallying cry Chelsea need in a topsy-turvy season that has seen them loosen their grip on the title, with Manchester City steaming ahead in the race as the Blues have slipped to third. Even United are above the champions as it stands.
Off the field, the departure of the influential head of women’s football last month sent shockwaves around the sport. The timing – a week after head coach Sonia Bompastor was given a new contract – raised questions.
‘As a player, you’re used to facing challenges and things that you can’t really control. We have a great team with a good atmosphere and we can just try to stay focused on what we can affect, and what we can affect is what we are doing on the pitch,’ Rytting Kaneryd says.
‘Obviously it’s been challenging – we haven’t been playing our best football lately and we haven’t had the results we want – and in those times it’s even more important to stick together and come together as a team.
Rytting Kaneryd’s closest friend, Julia Zigiotti Olme (left), was brought in from Bayern Munich last summer and has been a revelation in Man United’s midfield this season
Given the need for momentum heading into the final stretch of the season, the League Cup is being treated with the utmost respect by the holders
‘And yeah, we obviously needed a few meetings and chats to try to solve the problem or try to change something. We don’t want to sit in late May and say “why did we not do this or that?”.’
Rytting Kaneryd, who has been at the club since 2022 and has been one of Chelsea’s most dependable players during four trophy-laden seasons, has also struggled individually this season, having found her game time limited.
‘I’ve been in the game for a long time now, so I know it’s going to go up and down,’ she says. ‘It’s been frustrating. Of course, I always want to play every game and I want to help the team win and always be on the pitch.
‘It’s been challenging because of course you need to accept your role and then, when you get the chance to play, you just need to be active and ready. That’s been my main focus these last couple of weeks – just trying to stay fit, trying to stay ready, and then when my chance comes, I’m ready to help the team.
‘And I feel good. I feel in good shape. And that’s sometimes even more frustrating, but as long as I get something out of the training sessions and the games I’m involved in. This is football and this is life.’
After defeat to Arsenal in January, Bompastor conceded that Chelsea’s WSL title race is ‘probably gone’, given they are now nine points short of league leaders City.
It’s a curious tactic to concede a title mid-season – and one which Emma Hayes used to great effect in her last season in charge after a defeat to Liverpool that resulted in a great escape and a fifth consecutive WSL crown.
And Rytting Kaneryd hasn’t given up hope yet either.
‘I’m always going to say I believe,’ she says. ‘In Sweden we say that hope is the last thing that leaves your body. For us, it’s going to be a challenge. It’s going to be hard.
‘Looking at Man City and how well they’ve been playing lately, it’s going to be tough and it’s not in our control, and that’s the most frustrating thing. But I also don’t want to say that it’s completely over because it’s not. You just hope for the best.’
Given the need for momentum heading into the final stretch of the season, the League Cup is being treated with the utmost respect by the holders.
‘It’s more important than ever. We still have four trophies to compete for but, as it looks now, these three trophies are probably the closest ones, so it’s a very important cup to win.
‘We always want to win everything we compete in, so especially now with everything that’s been happening lately, this will be a great motivation for all of us.’
