saerch

Custom Search

Friday, June 13, 2008

Sweden v Spain

UEFA EURO 2008 GROUP D
Date: Sat 14 June Kick-off: 1700 BST Venue: Stadion Tivoli Neu, Innsbruck
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Birmingham midfielder Larsson could make his first Euro 2008 start
Sweden midfielder Sebastian Larsson may make his first Euro 2008 start in place of Christian Wilhelmsson, who is out of the tournament with a hamstring injury.

Niclas Alexandersson will also miss the match because of a calf injury, though he hopes to return for Sweden's final Group D game against Russia on 18 June.

Defender Fredrik Stoor could therefore start in an otherwise unchanged side.

Spain coach Luis Aragones is unlikely to make any changes to the team that beat Russia 4-1 in their opening match.

That will mean Fernando Torres continuing up front alongside David Villa, despite his apparent frustration at being substituted in the group opener.

The Liverpool striker appeared to ignore Aragones's offer of a handshake when he was replaced by Cesc Fabregas against Russia, but he said: "I was angry with myself and it isn't true that I refused to shake the coach's hand.


"Luis was six metres away from me, we weren't that close and I would never show any disrespect to a coach.

"I know that I can't get angry for more than 30 seconds when I've got team-mates next to me who didn't play [in the game] at all."

Victory for either side would effectively see them guaranteed a place in the quarter-finals.

And Sweden defender Olof Mellberg insists his side will be going for the win, despite Spain's impressive performance in their defeat of Russia.

"We need at least five points to qualify," said Mellberg. "Normally a draw is good against Spain, but with a victory we would be already qualified.

"But Spain will also think this because the last game in the group is always difficult. There is always a lot of pressure."


BIG MATCH STATS
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.

Head to head records and significant meetings

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.

Spain's longest winning sequences

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.

No comments: