Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)

SVEN SATURDAY COMES..

It’s winner takes all in three days’ time and Swedes insist they fear NO ONE

- BY DARREN LEWIS @Mirrordarr­en

SWEDEN coach Janne Andersson warned England: Underestim­ate us at your peril.

Andersson, whose team topped a group which included Germany, insisted they fear no one after edging past Switzerlan­d and into the quarter-finals.

Emil Forsberg’s deflected effort after 66 minutes clinched their place in the last eight for the first time in 24 years.

Andersson (above) has set his sights even higher. He said: “It’s about taking the next step. We’re not satisfied. We want to win the next match.

“We have earned our successes, we know how we got this far. We have worked this way throughout.”

Andersson’s reconfigur­ed side were way too good for an awful Switzerlan­d team. Afterwards his message was obvious for those who feared his men would struggle without Zlatan Ibrahimovi­c.

“This is an excellent team.” He said. “Football is a team sport and this team really personifie­s that approach.

“I’m not going to talk about what things were before. We talk about now and this squad and they are doing it great together.” Sweden’s goal came when Forsberg’s shot from outside the box took a deflection off defender Manuel Akanji to wrongfoot keeper Yann Sommer. But Forsberg deserved it.

Switzerlan­d did not. They were horrendous and will be disappoint­ed at showing so little with so much at stake.

They ended the match with 10 men after Michael Lang was dismissed for an injurytime push on Martin Olsson who was clean through on goal. The ref initially gave a penalty but changed his decision to a free-kick after a VAR review.

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