Wednesday 20 June 2012

Sweden leaves in style as French failed to impress

Two second-half stunners from Ibrahimovic and Larsson stunned France as they step into the quarter finals with a 2-0 loss. With Ibrahimovic's 54th minute volley and Larsson's injury-time goal, Sweden bids adieu to Euro 2012 with a win and deserved their first victory over France since 1969.

And now France will play Spain in quarter finals after surrendering their top spot in Group D as Swedes frustrated the French throughout the match with Ola Toivonen's two excellent chances to take the lead in the first half.

Sweden ended Les Bleus' 23-match unbeaten run.

France coach Blanc said "Sweden played this match with its heart. Physically, they were better prepared and they had a player in the team who made the difference, which makes a hell of a difference.

"We are really disappointed by this result, but we were in trouble throughout the match. When you lose a match, it is because you have not got the right team out there. Therefore, if I were to start it all over, we would not start with the same team."

"I don't think the attack was the area where we really suffered the most."

"We really struggled in defence and midfield where the Swedes were really strong."

"Even if the Swedes produced a superb performance, it is they who are going home."

France looked misplaced as Newcastle forward Hatem Ben Arfa who replaced Jeremy Menez looked out of sync with Karim Benzema and Franck Ribery had an evening to forget.

They also had too many chances which they failed to turn into goals as Ribery drove an early shot at Sweden goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson from an angle while Yann M'Vila and substitutes Menez and Olivier Giroud went close as they chased the game late on. France had twenty four shots from which ten were on target.

It was an embarrassing night for a French team who emerged to consider that they only had to turn up to overcome a Swedish team who were already out of the competition after losing their first two games.

Sweden coach, Erik Hamren had mixed feelings after winning the game he said "Right now I have quite mixed feelings. We should be content after today's victory, we were up against a strong team, because they hadn't been beaten in 23 games."

"We created a small margin which we perhaps didn't in the matches before, and you need those in order to win matches." 

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