While Hammarby were unable to defend their league title this season, they are enjoying a new adventure in Europe.
12,062 spectators, a record for a WCL qualifier, watched Martin Sjogren’s team lose 2-1 at home in the first leg of the play-off against Benfica, last season’s quarter-finalists.
A week later in Lisbon, Cathinka Tandberg’s 95th-minute goal secured a 3-2 aggregate victory and a place in the group stage for the first time.
Before their group stage debut, a 2-0 win against Austrian side St Polten at the Tele2 Arena, the players were greeted on the pitch by a huge tifo showing captain Alice Carlsson planting a Hammarby flag in the center of a map of Europe. .
More than 14,000 tickets have been sold for the home games against Manchester City and Barcelona.
“The support we have from the stands is unique,” said midfielder Julie Blakstad before her trip to Barcelona. “It helps us a lot at games, especially knowing that many fans travel to support us.”
And that’s the point of it all, really. What Sandstrom, Hommrich and thousands of other Hammarby fans are doing continues the fight for gender equality in a space that still desperately needs it.
“I have three daughters and I want them to have the same dreams as the boys,” Sandstrom says.
“My heart burns for equality in football. I want women’s teams to play for the same number of people and I want to have big stands with capos, drums and big tifos. In Hammarby, the players can live that dream right now. “
