NOTHING TO FEAR
Sweden are like watching the bad old England. There is…
WITH two minutes remaining and with Sweden in the lead, 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 Switzerland were up the other end and almost equalised.
A small detail from a dreadful match but indicative of its low quality and indicative of f what England face in the quarter-final of the World Cup on Saturday.
Before this game, Switzerland coach Vladimir Petkovic dismissed suggestions that this is the weaker side of the draw. His team would surprise people, he said.
Well, he was right. Switzerland and indeed Sweden did surprise us. They were worse than even we thought and if the victors aren’t rolled out of Russia by Gareth Southgate’s team in the last eight then England’s revival under their new coach will have to have a sizeable asterisk placed against it.
This was an earnest game, played by two limited sides hoping that method, organisation and endeavour would be enough to see them through.
For Sweden it did. Janne Andersson’s team were slightly the more aggressive and created the better chances. But that is a marginal call and relative to the low quality of this game.
Even the winning goal, which came midway through the second half, was an accident.
Emil Forsberg’s shot from the edge of the penalty area was poorly struck and was heading straight for Swiss goalkeeper Yann Sommer only for his central defender Manuel Akanji to deflect it high into the top corner. So a bad game was settled by a bad goal and that felt about right.
In some ways, watching Sweden is a little bit like watching old England, bad old England. All huff and puff and rigid straight lines. Stout men playing stout — but boring — football. If they are
to trouble England greatly in Samara, it will in all likelihood be from a set piece.
Sweden do not play particularly dextrous football and they don’t do much to surprise you. Where they once had Zlatan Ibrahimovic up front — and before him Henrik Larsson — they now have Toivonen and the equally ordinary Marcus Berg in attack and the drop in quality is noticeable.
The two strikers are decent in the air and have plenty of muscle. Here, though, they tended to snatch at their chances when they came. Had they not done so then they may not have had to rely of Forsberg’s fortunate goal to win the game for them.
Berg, for example, had a good chance early on only for his shot to strike Akanji, then 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 box and his shot towards Sommer’s bottom righthand corner was pawed away by the Switzerland keeper. It was a good save but had the shot been firmer Sommer would not have been able to make it.
That was at least an incident of note but there were not many more in the first half. Switzerland were relying heavily on the gifted Xherdan Shaqiri but the Stoke player’s radar wasn’t always on.
One cross was expertly delivered into the area only for Steven Zuber to head over and another passed dangerously across the front of goal and wide.
Ekdal volleyed a great chance over the bar when he should have
stooped to head just before the interval but most of the drama came after Forsberg’s 66thminute strike.
Forced now to take chances, Switzerland created two good headed opportunities. Maybe this hints at a weakness at the heart of the Swedish defence.
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.
Swiss defender Michael Lang was sent off in injury time for hauling down the breaking Martin Olsson, but the subsequent penalty call was correctly
overturned on the strength of VAR. The foul was outside the area. In truth, even that late drama was not very dramatic. In the shape of Sweden, this World Cup has a rogue quarter-finalist. 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.