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You are here: Home arrow Tournament arrow European Cup arrow Preview : Spain v Sweden
Preview : Spain v Sweden Print E-mail
Friday, 13 June 2008

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The clash of group D leading teams in Innsbruck will draw most attention because Spain and Sweden have managed to develop a kind of rivalry over the last few years. The teams were actually also in the same qualifying group.

Sweden won Spain at home but Red Fury got their revenge with a 3:0 win in the finish of the qualifications. They came in first in the group but, of course, both sides booked their tickets for the final tournament.

\Even before the championship started it was clear that Spain and Sweden are the squads with highest chances of qualifying for the next stage and in spite of Greece being the European champions and Russia pretending to become the new force in European football. This was only confirmed on Tuesday when Spain ran over Russia, while Sweden broke Greek resistance in the second half.

Both sides seemed quite reserved so it will be very interesting to see them playing with full potential, since this duel could decide the first place in the group and the easier rivals in the second stage. If any rival can be considered easier, since group D will cross ways with the death group made of Netherlands, France, Italy and Romania. Aragones and Lagerback definitely won't make any calculations, nor hide their weapons.

The squads know each other very well and we are yet to see if Sweden can compensate for the injuries of Wilhelmson and Alexandersson who paid for the triumph over Greece. On the other hand, Aragones has no problems with his line-up, and all eyes of excited nation will be on fantastic tandem Villa-Torres who completely blew Russians away.

Head-to-heads

Sweden and Spain have met each other on 12 occasions with Spain winning five times and Sweden three.

They have met in five competitive matches including two occasions in the qualification for this tournament. They each won one of the qualification matches for Euro 2008 and Spain have won three to Sweden's two in total.

Sweden were the last team to beat Spain in a competitive match, winning 2-0 in Euro 2008 qualification in October 2006.

Last 5 Sweden matches:
10.06.2008 GROUP D Greece-Sweden
0:2
01.06.2008 FRIEND Sweden-Ukraine
0:1
26.05.2008 FRIEND Sweden-Slovenia
1:0
26.03.2008 FRIEND Brazil-Sweden
1:0
06.02.2008 FRIEND Turkey-Sweden   0:0
Last 5 Spain matches:
10.06.2008 GROUP D Spain - Russia
4:1
04.06.2008 FRIEND Spain - USA   1:0
31.05.2008 FRIEND Spain - Peru
2:1
26.03.2008 FRIEND Spain - Italy
1:0
06.02.2008 FRIEND Spain - France   1:0
Sweden vs Spain head to head stats:
2006/2007 EURO Q Sweden - Spain 2:0
This Season Sweden vs Spain head to head stats:
17.11.2007 EURO Q Spain - Sweden 3:0

HEAD TO HEAD TOTALS

Played Sweden Drawn Spain
All venues 12 3 4 5
In Sweden 4 1 3 0
In Spain 5 1 1 3
Neutral 3 1 0 2
Competitive matches 5 2 0 3
European Ch'ship 0 0 0 0

 















Team facts - Sweden

Boast the second oldest ever squad in the history of this tournament at an average age of 31 years and three days.

Unbeaten in five successive European Championship matches (two wins and three draws).

Scored two goals in a match for the first time in seven outings this year when they beat Greece 2-0 in their European Championship opener.

Team facts - Spain

On a streak of seven straight wins, their best since 1999. Their record of nine date back to the 1920s.

Selected one of the most inexperienced squads at Euro 2008 - only Austria and Russia have fewer caps in the squad than the Spanish.

This is the 50th match for Luis Aragones as Spain's head coach. Spain have won 34, drawn 11 and lost just four of his matches in charge. The quartet of defeats were against France (1-3), Northern Ireland (2-3), Sweden (0-2) and Romania (0-1).

The next card shown to a player from Spain will be their 50th, a total made up of 48 yellow cards and one direct red card.

Player facts - Sweden

Sweden goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson has not let in a goal for 235 minutes at the European Championship. If he keeps a clean sheet against Spain, his streak will be the fifth longest in the competition's history.

Henrik Larsson now holds the record as the oldest player for Sweden in their European Championship history. He will be 36 years and 268 days when this match is played.

Larsson is also his country's top scorer in the competition with four goals. Larsson, Thierry Henry (France) and Nuno Gomes (Portugal) can join Jurgen Klinsmann (Germany) and Vladimir Smicer (Czech Republic) as the only players to have scored in three European Championship editions.

Olof Mellberg, Fredrik Ljungberg and Larsson all jointly hold the Swedish record for most appearances at a European Championship (eight).

Player facts - Spain

Fernando Torres has been selected by Aragones in 41 of the Spanish head coaches' 49 previous matches in charge, more than any other player.

David Villa is Spain's top scorer under Aragones with 17 goals. Villa scored Spain's first ever hat-trick at the European Championship when netting three in their opener against Russia. He needs one goal to become Spain's record goalscorer at the European Championship. He currently shares the record with Alfonso.

Villa is the competition's top scorer after one match. At Euro 2004, the top scorers after one match were Zinedine Zidane and Henrik Larsson with two goals. Both managed only one more goal in the rest of the tournament.

  • Striker David Villa, who notched a hat-trick on Tuesday, suffered a hairline fracture to his right index finger after getting it caught in Fernando Torres's shirt during the celebrations for his opening goal but will be available.

  • Sweden, however, will have to reconstruct their right flank following injuries to Christian Wilhelmsson and defender Niclas Alexandersson.

  • Alexandersson's place is set to go to Fredrik Stoor, who replaced him as substitute against the Greeks, while it is a toss up between Sebastian Larsson and Johan Elmander for Wilhelmsson's berth on the right wing.

  • Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who opened the scoring against Greece, has a swollen knee but should be fit enough to start again alongside Henrik Larsson up front.

Player to watch

Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden) :  The Internazionale man finally lived up to his billing against Greece. Let's hope that is not it for the tournament.

Fernando Torres (Spain) : Reports of a bust-up with coach Luis Aragones will not deflect the Liverpool striker's focus away from opening his account for the tournament.

Possible Line Up :

Spain : Casillas, Puyol, Ramos, Marchena, Capdevila, Iniesta, Xavi, Senna, Silva, Torres, Villa

Subs : Palop, Reina, Alonso, Navarro, Juanito, Guiza, Fabregas, Garcia, Albiol, Cazorla, Arbeola, De la Red.

Manager: Luis Aragonés

 

Sweden : Isaksson, Nilsson, Hansson, Mellberg, Stoor, Larsson, Svensson, Andersson, Ljungberg, Larsson, Ibrahimovic.

Subs : Allbäck, Elmander, Källström, Shaaban, Dorsin, Rosenberg, Majstorovic, Granqvist, Wiland, Linderoth

Injured : Alexandersson, Wilhelmsson

Manager: Lars Lagerback

 

Match officials

Referee  : Pieter Vink (NED)

Assistant referee 1  : Adriaan Inia (NED)

Assistant referee 2  : Hans ten Hoove (NED)

Fourth official  : Craig Thomson (SCO)

Reserve assistant referee  : Martin Balko (SVK)

 

 

 


 

 





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