Euro qualifying match September 8 @ Råsunda (Stockholm) Group F: 1 Sweden 7 6 0 1 +13 18 2 N. Ireland 7 5 1 1 +5 16 3 Spain 7 5 0 2 +7 15 4 Denmark 6 3 1 2 +4 10 5 Liechtenstein 8 1 1 6 -16 4 6 Iceland 7 1 1 5 -10 4 7 Latvia 6 1 0 5 -3 3 The match in Denmark ended in scandal after a Danish fan rushed on the field at 3-3 in the final minutes with Sweden about to hit a penalty kick. Sweden was awarded victory 3-0. Is this settled or is the matter still pending UEFA review, by the way? It's still almost two weeks in the future but I figure starting a thread couldn't hurt. Thoughts? Predictions?
Here's Sweden as announced today: Andreas Isaksson, 25 (Manchester City, England) Rami Shaaban, 32 (Fredrikstad, Norway) Johan Wiland, 26 (Elfsborg) Matias Concha, 27 (Bochum, Germany) Erik Edman, 28 (Rennes, France) Petter Hansson, 30 (Rennes, France) Daniel Majstorovic, 30 (FC Basel, Switzerland) Olof Mellberg, 29 (Aston Villa, England) Mikael Nilsson, 29 (Panathinaikos, Greece) Niclas Alexandersson, 35 (IFK Göteborg) Daniel Andersson, 30 (Malmö FF) Kennedy Bakircioglü, 26 (Ajax, Netherlands) Dusan Djuric, 22 (Halmstad) Kim Källström, 25 (Lyon, France) Tobias Linderoth, 28 (Galatasaray, Turkey) Fredrik Ljungberg, 30 (West Ham, England) Anders Svensson, 31 (Elfsborg) Christian Wilhelmsson, 27 (Bolton, England on loan from Nantes, France) Marcus Allbäck, 34 (FC København, Denmark) Johan Elmander, 26 (Toulouse, France) Zlatan Ibrahimovic, 25 (Inter, Italy) Rade Prica, 27 (Aalborg, Denmark) Marcus Rosenberg, 24 (Werder Bremen, Germany) How's Denmark look?
I predict that Sweden will suck and be out-played as always, but luckily we still manage to get some important wins and get to all the big tournaments. We seriously have no attacking game. As for the result, i'm not sure. Aren't we pretty much qualified even if we lose this one?
Haha, are you serious ?. Sweden has an excellent attacking game. Elmander has been simply outstanding and Allbäck has been good as well. The biggest name (Zlatan) hasn't even played several of the EC QF matches and Sweden is still at the top of the table. We have great, agressive midfielders in Freddie, Källström and Willhelmsson as well. As for the prediction, I thought Denmark would win at Parken and Sweden at Råsunda. I believe Sweden will win but it will be difficult since the Danes are fighting for their survival now.
Sweden has great attacking PLAYERS, but the national team usually plays like crap offensively. I have like never seen Sweden play well and dominate a game against a worse opponent (with a few rare exceptions), and against Denmark, they're nearly always outplayed. Just watch and see. What they can do is play against much better teams, like Spain, and manage a draw or a win by just fighting defensively. As for Zlatan, he has never been great in the national team, and i haven't seen Ljungberg get the ball without falling down in like 2 years. Of course we're at the top of the table, we somehow get results anyway like usual. I shouldn't complain much, the results are what counts. Look at the last european cup, horribly outplayed in every game including Denmark, still managed to somehow knock Italy out of the group.
Traditionally the Swedish national team has always been well organized and strong defensively, but predictable and one dimensional when going forward. Today the team has an almost completely different look. There is a multiple of options for the attacking positions and all the "star" players in big European leagues are forwards or attacking midfielders. At he same time the defence is looking very shaky at the moment. The fact that an average player like Mellberg is the key man in the back four says a lot. Sweden of today can score against any team but lacks the ability to close down games defensively, as the previous game against Denmark showed
Well I think you are so far off that there isn't much middle-ground to debate on. I agree completly with Dune's assesment.
Danish team announced: Jesper Christiansen, FC København Stephan Andersen, Brøndby IF Thomas Sørensen , Aston Villa Thomas Helveg, Odense Boldklub Michael Gravgaard, FC København Martin Laursen, Aston Villa Daniel Agger, Liverpool FC Niclas Jensen, FC København Jan Kristiansen, 1.FC Nürnberg William Kvist, FC København Jonas Borring, Odense Boldklub Leon Andreasen, SV Werder Bremen Daniel Jensen, SV Werder Bremen Rasmus Würtz, FC København Thomas Kristensen, FC Nordsjælland Thomas Kahlenberg, AJ Auxerre Esben Hansen, 1.FC Kaiserslautern Dennis Rommedahl, Ajax Amsterdam Peter Løvenkrands, Schalke 04 Jesper Grønkjær, FC København Jon Dahl Tomasson, Villarreal Nicklas Bendtner, Arsenal Morten Nordstrand, FC København Quite a few players from FC København there, actually. Let's hope they can wash off the dissapointment from the loss to Benfica and the horrid, horrid Ireland game. I don't expect to see Kvist, Kristensen or Borring in action against Sweden - they're likely to be fielded against Liechtenstein though.
Lagerbäck is unbelieveable. He will play Anders Svensson and place Källström on the bench. Isaksson who hasn't played for 6 weeks will guard the posts instead of Shabaan who has been brilliant. Whatever the choice of the supporters as well as every expert is, Lagerbäck always seems to want to do the exact opposite.
0-0 Sweden clearly the better team. Electric first half, thanks mostly to Zlatan. He tore up! Deserved a goal though. Elmander had some good runs, but without that true danger. Wilhelmsson was mediocre. Bakircioglu had a pretty good performance once again, but I feel he might be too slow. Edman did very well for himself, controlled his man and covered up the others' mistakes. Nilsson was very average. Hansson was crap at everything with very few exceptions. The bad things also include Sweden's habit of abandoning the midfield. In other words, business as usual. Svensson plainly runs and hides. He doesn't belong in the national team. Denmark always got through on the left (for Swe: right) and got some near-chances in the box due to Hansson's terrible positioning. Sorensen was solid in goal. Apart from that, pretty disappointing, Denmark.
In the second half, Denmark was also lucky to not have their player shown red (for intentional handball to prevent a scoring chance) and a free kick awarded to Sweden at the edge of the box...
In this very high paced match Denmark were clearly better than Sweden in the short passing game (as usual), while Sweden were producing the more sharper looking opportunities... Zlatan and Elmander were in top shape for Sweden, but Thomas Sørensen made some great saves (though also some of his usual stupid mistakes)... Denmark on the other hand produced plenty of good crosses and passes to win a match like this, but clearly lack the last sharpness in attack at the moment.. Leon Andreasen was simply brilliant in central midfield for Denmark... He is going to become a great player for Denmark in the future.. As I have written before, then 1 point in Sweden is not the end of the world for Denmark, if we win away against N-Ireland and the last 4 home games... N-Ireland have lost to Latvia today and perhaps we are also getting a bit of help from Iceland who are leading 1-0 at home against a 10 men Spain (Xabi Alonso has been send off).. .
Sweden should have scored at least two of the chances they had. Very disappointing to tie against a Danish side with no real edge. On the bright side, however, Zlatan was bringing his A-game and I'm sure he will be of great help in the remaining qualifiers.
Luck would be an understatement. Agger clearly handballed. Elmander was gonna break through and Agger should have gotten his 2nd yellow card of the evening. Zlatan and the Swedish players just stopped playing waiting for the ref to hand them a free kick that was right at the edge of the box. Ref signals advantage ?????, when the ball is way further from where the incident happened, crazy. Sweden was the better team. Sweden's chances to score was sharper than Denmarks, not only were they sharper but Sweden had more chances as well. On a positive side for Denmark, at the start of the 2nd half, it was pure Danish domination from the 45th to 51st minute.
The 1-1 result between Iceland and Spain mean that Spain now got 16 point with 4 games left to play, while Denmark got 11 points with 5 games left to play.... So, as it is right now, if Denmark beat Spain in Aarhus, they are going to be 2 points behind Spain, but with one more game in hand... So Denmark is still able to decide their our own fate in this group... Denmark dominated most of the play, but lacked the last sharpness in attack, while Zlatan and Elmander were were looking sharp for Sweden, but the Swedish play and passing as such did not look quite as good, so all-in-all the final result was not that big a surprise ..... Just as Agger could have been send off for a 2nd yellow card in the 2nd half, then the same could have happened to Elmander, but the referee let them both off the hook... .
Haha come on Ceres. Sweden was so much better that you can't be able to spin this game into something it wasn't. Denmark did NOT dominate most of the play. Quite the opposite. Denmark domintated 6 mins of the game, right after the 2nd half kicked off. In a post-game interview, Sorensen said that Sweden was the better team. If you want to choose to believe otherwise, then alright. Regarding Agger, no you can't make a case about Elmander. Agger deserved to be sent according to every rule in the book. The ref missed the violation, that's the only reason he stayed on.
Please take off your Swedish glasses... Denmark dominated from start of the first half, then Sweden took over a bit and then it was back and forth, but with Sweden producing the bigger opportunities because Zlatan and Elmander looked very sharp... The 2nd half was for the most part dominated by Denmark... The Danish defenders, wingers and central midfield was way better at passing the ball around than the Swedish defenders and midfielders in most of this match, while Zlatan and Elmander was a regular 2-men army for Sweden and doing way better than the Danish forwards.. The Danish players and coach were very pleased with the play after the match but agreed that Sweden had produced the bigger opportunities... .
Haha, what planet are you from ??. The Swedish coach as well as the Swedish commentators are always quite modest, regardless of who we face. Now in this match, everyone were in agreement that while it was ok with a draw considering the table and Sweden being on top, it was somewhat sour that Sweden didn't win when they had so many great chances to score and they were the better team. Sure Denmark was great and even though Sweden was much better, I wouldn't even call it Swedish domination. It's funny how you and Sorensen can have such different views on the game. Your talk of Danish domination is pure fantasy, it's not even a half-truth. I won't even tell you to take off your Danish glasses but I'd like to ask you to please stop being the Goebbels of the Danish football federation.
That's the fastest I've ever seen a football thread be Godwin'ed. For being a 0-0 game, it was pretty entertaining. For once Denmark had luck on their side, as Agger should have gotten a red for the handball. And Sorensen had an excellent game and handled everything Zlatan (incredible skill and technique) and Elmander threw at him. Each side had their good spell, but Sweden had the more clearcut chances. Denmark's attack was disappointing, even though Gronkjaer did pretty much what he wanted on the left. It says something about your team when the best chance comes thanks to a shot from a DM (Leon Andreasen, one of Denmark's best). I think we can all be in agreement that a win by Denmark would have been unfair, while Sorensen is to thank for the clean sheet. A good performance, considering that we were missing key players (Poulsen, Jacobsen and Jorgensen). Although our midfield was too easily outmuscled, even though we expected it. Over the two legs, the two teams have been even, and both games have been exciting. It would be nice if both would advance from the group at the expense of Spain (woefully underperforming), although Denmark's road is more complicated. Hat off to Zlatan, though. He showed sublime skill with nearly every part of his body. Too bad he still can't score for the NT.
Well none of us were shocked. We have absolutely no defense on the left. Nilsson is an absolute joke. edit: what does Godwin'ed mean ?
Sørensen : "I think we played an incredibly good match. I have no doubts that we are better than Sweden. We produced some good crosses but lacked some of the same punch in attack as Sweden with Zlatan and Johan Elmander" http://ekstrabladet.dk/sport/landsholdsfodbold/article335567.ece I fail to see how he has a different view... Quite agree, but I'm pretty tired of all the Swedes talking like they have owned Denmark in these two games... The fact is that Sweden looked sharper in attack but Denmark was playing the better short passing in both games. .
In the interview right after the match, he stated that Sweden was the better team and he wasn't unhappy with a draw. No I am not spinning this in any way. Sweden was the better team and that is what he said. He said this in on the interview on Swedish tv3 right after the match. I have no link to give you but all other Swedish posters (or Danish posters living in Sweden) can tell you the exact same thing.