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Far from pretty but Forsberg’s deflected strike means it’s... 37
SWEDEN haven’t won many new friends for their football in this otherwise entertaining World Cup and Emil Forsberg’s deflected strike, which snatched a place in the quarter-finals, won’t change that now.
But who among us is really in a position to find fault with this supremely wellorganised, disciplined side who have somehow scrambled and harried their way to the top table in Russia?
With apologies to Abba, that’s the name of the game isn’t it. Winning?
Janne Andersson’s team had already provided a shock to the system during the qualifiers by denying Italy what many viewed as their rightful place in the Greatest Show on Earth.
Now they are at it again, eliminating the Swiss once they got their noses in front after beating Mexico and South Korea in Group F and coming so close to upsetting Germany before outlasting them in the tournament anyway.
Here they are in the last eight for the first time since 1994. Quite an achievement when bigger, brasher nations have fallen by the wayside. Let’s not pretend this was a match that will live long in the memory, though.
With two minutes remaining and Sweden in the lead after Forsberg’s 66th-minute effort, their forward Ola Toivonen tried to play the ball against an opponent and out for a corner.
The only problem was that, from all of a yard and a half, he missed and as such the result was a goalkick to Switzerland. A minute later the Swiss were up the other end of the field and almost equalised.
A small detail from a disappointing encounter but indicative of its low quality when compared to some of the wonderful spectacles we’ve witnessed during this World Cup.
Certainly a bit of a let down the day after Belgium and Japan had provided us such a wonderful thriller in Rostov.
But these are changed days for the Swedes.
Where they once had Zlatan Ibrahimovic up front - and before him the mercurial Henrik Larsson - they now have Toivonen and Marcus Berg in attack and the drop down in quality is noticeable.
Organisation and team spirit goes a long way, though, and it eventually told against the more fancied Swiss.
Berg had a good chance early on, only for his shot to strike Swiss defender Manuel Akanji before Albin Ekdal drove the follow up widely over.
Then, in the 28th minute, a cross from the left reached Berg on the far side of the penalty box and his shot towards Yann Sommer’s bottom right hand corner was pawed away by the goalkeeper.
Switzerland were relying heavily on the gifted Xherdan Shaqiri but the Stoke City player’s radar wasn’t always on yesterday as he struggled to create anything of note.
One cross was delivered into the area only for Steven Zuber to head over while another passed dangerously across the front of goal and wide. Ekdal then volleyed a great chance over the bar when he should have stooped to head just before the interval. So far so tight, but the Swedish support didn’t have long to wait for a longed-for breakthrough in the second half. Forsberg’s shot from the edge of the penalty area wasn’t greatly struck and was heading straight for Sommer only for his central defender Manuel Akanji to deflect it high into the top corner. Agony for the Swiss, and the majority of the drama would come in the wake of that largely fortuitous effort.
Forced now into taking chances, Switzerland created two good headed opportunities.
Forsberg had to clear a header from his goal line after Breel Embolo met a corner in the 79th minute and then, 10 minutes later, Switzerland moved upfield after Toivonen’s error and another header, this time from Haris Seferovic, brought a low save from Robin Olsen.
As the clock ran down, the desperate Swiss were caught out as they pushed up, Sweden’s Martin Olsson racing clear and defender Michael Lang forced into hauling him down.
Lang was dismissed and the subsequent penalty call correctly overturned on the strength of VAR with the foul clearly outside the penalty area.
The free kick was wasted but Andersson weren’t caring as the final whistle sounded almost immediately.
Swede dreams are made of this. SWEDEN (4-4-2): Olsen 6; Lustig 6 (Krafth 82min), Lindelof 6.5, Granqvist 6.5, Augustinsson 6; Claesson 6, Ekdal 5.5, Svensson 6, FORSBERG 7 (Olsson 82) 6; Toivonen 6, Berg 6.5 (Thelin 90). Scorer: Forsberg 64. Booked: Lustig. Manager: Janne Andersson 7. SWITZERLAND (4-2-3-1): Sommer 6.5; Lang 5.5, Akanji 5.5, Djourou 6, Rodriguez 6; Behrami 6, Xhaka 6; Shaqiri 6.5, Dzemaili 6 (Seferovic 73, 6), Zuber 6 (Embolo 73, 6.5); Drmic 6. Booked: Behrami, Xhaka. Sent off: Lang. Manager: Vladimir Petkovic 5.5. Referee: Damir Skomina (Slovenia) 6.5. Attendance: 64,042.