Sweden national football team

The Swedish national football team is traditionally considered one of the strongest teams in the world. Three times Swedish football players won Olympic medals, eleven times participated in the final tournament of the World Cup . In 1958, the team took second place in the world championship , held at home, in Sweden, then in the final match she was defeated by the Brazilian national team with a score of 2: 5. Twice more Swedes took third place, in 1950 and 1994 , and in 1938 finished fourth.

The first team of Sweden, July 12, 1908

Sweden national team - hosts of the 1912 Olympics

XX century

Early History

The Swedish national team held its first international match against the Norwegian national team on July 12, 1908 , and won 11: 3. In the same year, the team also played with the teams of England , the Netherlands and Belgium and was defeated in all three meetings.

Then the Swedes took part in the games of the Summer Olympics for the first time. At the Olympic football tournament, the team suffered the most devastating defeat in history, losing to the amateur team of Great Britain 1:12. In the following years, the team represented Sweden at the Olympic Games of 1912 (as the hosts of the tournament), 1920 and 1924 , at the last of which it managed to achieve the first tournament success - to win bronze medals.

1938 World Cup

The 1938 World Cup was the second in a row in which the Swedish national team participated in the final tournament. In the first round, the team was able to play with the Austrian national team (one of the strongest teams of the time, the famous Wundertim ), however, after the German occupation ( Anschluss ), the Austrian team was unable to continue to participate in the tournament. Therefore, the Swedes went to the quarter finals without a game, where they met with the Cuban national team and won 8-0 thanks to the hat-tricks of Tore Keller and Gustav Vetterström . In the semifinals, Sweden lost to Hungary 1: 5. In the match for third place, the team met with Brazil . In this game, the Swedes were defeated 2: 4 and eventually took fourth place in the tournament, the first and so far only time in the history of Swedish football.

1948 Summer Olympics

Sweden, which declared its neutrality during the Second World War, was able to prepare the team for the football tournament of the first post-war Olympic Games in a relatively calm atmosphere. In the first round, the Swedish national team met with the Austrian national team, which unexpectedly came to the tournament without professionals in the squad, although a lot of players played in the Austrian championship who could be allowed to play at the Olympics. The match took place at the White Hart Lane Stadium in London , in which the Swedish team won 3-0. In the second game, the Swedes defeated the Republic of Korea 12-0 team , which is still one of the two largest victories in the history of the team. In the semifinals, the Swedish team played with their neighbors from Denmark and defeated them 4: 2.

The final match was held at the famous London Wembley in the presence of about 40,000 spectators. The Swedes met in the finals with the national team of Yugoslavia and won 3: 1, in that meeting the Swedes scored twice against Gunnar Gren and one goal was scored by Gunnar Nordal , the opponents had the only goal Stepan Bobek . Swedish football players won Olympic gold medals, which was the first victory for the national team in a significant international tournament.

1950 World Cup

At the World Cup in 1950, the Football Association of Sweden did not involve Swedish professionals in the team, only amateur football players played in the team. The Swedish national team managed to become one of the six European national teams that reached the final part of the tournament, which was held at the stadiums of Brazil . The Swedes fell into the same group with the national teams of Italy and Paraguay . In the first match, they defeated the Italians 3: 2 in Sao Paulo . The second game, against Paraguay, the Swedes ended in a draw (2: 2) and, taking first place, reached the final round.

The first game in the group stage tournament of the final round, the Swedish team held against the hosts - the Brazilian national team . The match was held at the Maracana stadium in the presence of more than 138,000 spectators, which is the record audience ever attending matches of the Sweden national team. The game ended with a score of 7: 1 in favor of Brazil. The team played the next match in São Paulo against the Uruguayan national team , with whom the Swedes met at the world championships for the first time. Uruguay won 3-2, after which the Swedish team lost all chances for gold medals.

Sweden also played the last match of the tournament in Sao Paulo, against the Spanish national team . The Swedes won 3: 1. As a result, the Swedish team took third place. However, the team failed to qualify for the next World Cup.

1958 World Cup

In 1956, the Swedish Football Federation again allowed professionals to play for the national team, which gave Swedish fans hope for a successful performance at the upcoming World Cup . This time the Swedes were the hosts of the tournament and played in the same group with the national teams of Mexico , Hungary and Wales .

The first game was played at the Rosunda National Stadium in Stockholm in the presence of about 32,000 spectators. Sweden defeated Mexico 3-0 and became the leader of its group. The next match was to be held against the national team of Hungary, which at that time was the finalist of the previous world championship in 1954 and the champion of the 1952 Olympic Games. This game also took place at Rosound, the Swedish team won 2-1 with two goals by Kurt Hamrin . In the final match of the group stage, the Swedes tied 0-0 against Wales.

In the quarterfinal, the Swedish national team defeated the USSR national team 2-0. The semifinal match against the German national team was the only one that the hosts did not play at Rosund, but at Ullevi in Gothenburg , and in the presence of 50,000 spectators the team held one of their best matches in the tournament. After an opponent player, Erich Yuskovyak , was removed from the field at 59 minutes, the Swedes managed to score two goals and win the match with a score of 3: 1.

The final match was held at Rosunda between the tournament hosts and the finalists of the 1958 World Cup of the Brazil national team . The meeting ended with the victory of the Brazilians with a score of 5: 2, which brought them their first world title in history. For the Swedish national team, this finale was also a major success and to this day remains the team's highest achievement in world championships. In the final match, 17-year-old Pele scored twice with scored goals. At the end of the match, Brazilian football players paid tribute to the Swedish fans, honoring the stadium with the Swedish flag .

After success at the World Cup

The Swedish national team was one of the strongest teams in the world of the 1950s . However, after a successful performance in 1958, the Swedes could not repeat such achievements. In the qualifying round of the 1962 World Cup, the Swedish national team shared the first place in their group with the Swiss national team . The teams scored the same number of points, although the goal difference between the Swedes was better - 10 goals and only 3 conceded. To determine the winner, an additional match was held on a neutral field in West Berlin , in which success followed the Swiss players who won that meeting with a score of 2: 1.

In 1964, the Swedes were close to getting into the final tournament of the European Championship in Spain , in which the four best teams of the continent were to take part. The selection was carried out according to the cup system with two matches at home and away. The Swedish national team began with a 2-0 victory in the first match against the Norwegian national team away, and then consolidated their overall success, having tied with an opponent in a home match. In the 1/8 finals, the Swedes defeated the Yugoslav national team due to a home victory 3–2 (the match in Belgrade ended in a draw 0-0). In the quarterfinals of the Swedish national team, he was to meet with the current European champion - the USSR national team. The draw was 1: 1 in Stockholm, and the Soviet players turned out to be stronger in Moscow in the return match: two goals of Viktor Monday and one of Valery Voronin brought the USSR national team a 3-1 victory ( Kurt Hamrin scored once in both meetings against the Swedes) .

In the qualifying tournament of the 1966 World Cup, Sweden fell into the same group with the national teams of Germany and Cyprus. In the opening match, the team made a draw with the German national team , and then 3-0 defeated the Cyprus national team . In the second match with the German team, the Swedes were defeated and eventually won only the second place in the group, which did not allow them to qualify for participation in the final tournament.

The Swedes also participated in the qualifying tournament for EURO 1968 , but took only third place in their group. The only success of the team in the late 1960s was getting into the final tournament of the 1970 World Cup , she was able to get ahead of the teams of France and Norway in the qualifying group. However, at the World Championships in Mexico, the Swedish team lost the fight in the group to the Italian and Uruguayan teams, taking 3rd place and being ahead of only the Israeli team .

Until 1984, the Swedish team occupied third place in the qualifying stages for the European Championships. Only in 1992, Sweden got to the final tournament of the European Championship, being the host country.

1974 World Cup

In the qualifying group for the 1974 World Cup, the Swedish team was together with Austria , Hungary and Malta . Sweden finished second, behind the Austrians, and reached the final tournament.

At the first group stage, they got into the rivals the teams of Uruguay , the Netherlands and Bulgaria . The first game, against the Bulgarians, ended in a goalless draw. Sweden played the second game with the Netherlands national team with the same result. In the last game with the national team of Uruguay, the Swedes won 3-0, Roland Sandberg and Ralph Edström scored (twice). The Swedish team took second place and reached the second group stage.

In the first match of the second stage, the Swedish team lost to Poland 0: 1. After that, the tournament situation developed in such a way that in the event of a defeat with one goal difference in the next game against the hosts of the tournament, the German national team , and the victory of the Yugoslav national team over the Polish team, Sweden could count on the second place in the group and compete for bronze medals. However, after the Poles defeated the Yugoslavs with a score of 2: 1, the Swedes could only count on victory.

The game against the German national team was held in Dusseldorf in the presence of 66,500 spectators. The Swedish striker Ralph Edström put his team ahead in the 29th minute. But in the second half, the German team scored two goals, and took control of the game, not losing it, even when in the 59th minute the Swede Roland Sandberg equalized. Having scored twice more, the German national team won with a score of 4: 2 and reached the final. At the end of the tournament, the German footballers who became its winners noted that their team’s game with the Swedish national team was their best match in the tournament. The Swedes had only one game to play, in which they defeated the Yugoslav national team 2: 1 and took the final 5th place in the tournament.

1979-1990

After the successful 1970s , when Sweden participated in all three world championships, the coach changed for the team - Lars “Laban” Arnesson was appointed instead of Georg “Ob” Erickson . Before taking charge of the national team, Arnesson was a successful coach at the Esther club. After a disastrous performance in the 1986 World Cup qualifier, Olle Nordin led the national team. However, throughout the 1980s, the Swedes were not able to reach the final of any of the major tournaments. Only in qualifying for the world championship in Italy in 1990 did the Swedish team manage to beat the England team in the group and make it to the finals for the first time in 12 years. However, the participation of the national team in this tournament was again unsuccessful and ended in three defeats in the group round from Brazil , Scotland and Costa Rica .

European Championship 1992

Sweden hosted the 1992 European Championship as the host country. For the national team, participation in this tournament was the debut at the European Championships. Sweden was in the same group with the national teams of Denmark , France and England and became the only team in the tournament that was able to beat the future European champions - the Danes. Sweden took first place in the group and reached the semifinals, where she lost to the German team . This result is the best achievement of the Swedish team in the championships of the continent.

1994 World Cup

The Swedish national team qualified for the 1994 World Cup in the United States from first place in their qualifying group (ahead of the national teams of Bulgaria and France ). In the final tournament, the team ended up in Group B with Brazil , Cameroon and the Russian team . In the first game, by the 75th minute, the Swedes were inferior to the national team of Cameroon 1: 2, however, thanks to the goal of Martin Dalin, they reduced the match to a draw. In the second match, where the Russian team was the Swedes rival, at the very beginning of the match they conceded a goal from the penalty spot, but later on they were also able to equalize the score ( Thomas Brolin scored) and in the second half thanks to the double Dalin won 3-1. At the end of the group stage in a game that did not solve anything, a draw 1: 1 with the Brazilian national team was recorded.

In the first match of the playoffs, Sweden met with a sensation of the tournament - the Saudi national team and won 3-1, two goals on the account of Kenneth Andersson , the author of the third goal is Martin Dalin. The quarterfinal match against Romania was unforgettable for the Swedish football fans. The Swedes were the first to open the scoring at the end of the second half, but two minutes before the end of regular time, the Romanian player Florin Raducco equalized the score, and he put his team ahead, in the 101st minute of the added time. But five minutes before the end, at the 116th minute, Kenneth Andersson scored a goal with a header, making the score 2: 2. The penalty shootout started by hitting the gates of the Swedish player Hokan Milda , but then the goalkeeper of the Swedish national team, Thomas Ravelli, recaptured two 11 meters and brought his team a victory, becoming the hero of the match. In the semifinals, the Swedes again entered the Brazilian national team, but, unlike the group match, they could not score and lost 0: 1 to future world champions.

In the match for third place, Sweden met with the national team of Bulgaria , their rival in the qualifying tournament, who in turn lost to the Italians in the semifinal. The Swedes scored four goals in the first half, which was enough to win. The team won the bronze world championship, which was the best result of the team since 1958 . Among other things, Sweden became the most productive team of the tournament with 15 goals scored. A successful performance allowed the Swedish team to be in November 1994 in second place in the ranking of FIFA teams . But after that, the Swedish team frankly failed to qualify for the 1996 European Championship and 1998 World Cup.

2000 European Championship

In the qualification for the 2000 European Championships, the Swedish national team under the leadership of Tommy Söderberg took first place in group 5, ahead of England and Poland by 9 points. Before the start of the final part of the championship, in addition to Söderberg, Lars Lagerbek was appointed as a coach. At the championship , which was held in Belgium and the Netherlands , the Swedes failed, taking the last place in group B. In the first game, they lost to the Belgians 1: 2, the goal was scored by Mjelby from the Swedes, the team captain Patrick Andersson was removed from the field. The second match ended in a goalless draw with the Turkish team . In the third match, with an equal game, the Italian team won with a score of 2: 1, the only goal of the Swedish team was scored by Larsson , recognized by UEFA as the best player of the match.

21st Century

2002 World Cup

At the 2002 World Cup, the Swedish national team came out of first place in the 4th qualifying group. In the final part of the championship, held in Korea and Japan , the Swedes fell into group F together with the teams of England , Argentina and Nigeria . Journalists called this group the "death group." Sweden was able to leave this group from the first place. In the first match, in which the rival was the team of England, a draw was recorded: the goal of Campbell in the first half, the Swedes answered with a goal of Alexandersson in the second. In the next game, thanks to the double of Larsson, a victory over Nigeria was won - 2: 1. In the third match against Argentina, Anders Svensson opened the scoring in the 59th minute with a long-range shot from the free kick. At 88 minutes, a penalty was awarded for a violation committed by Johnson instead of Svensson in the penalty area. Hedman repelled a strike by Ortega , but Crespo finished the ball into the goal. The game ended in a draw 1: 1, the Swedish team reached the playoffs. In the 1/8 finals , the Senegal team became Sweden's rival. At the 11th minute, Larsson opened the scoring after a corner shot by Svensson, but at the 37th minute Kamara scored a return goal, and at the 107th minute he scored a goal, which became “ golden ”. The Senegal team reached the quarter finals, which was the highest achievement in its history.

2004 European Championship

The Swedish national team qualified for the 2004 European Championship from first place in qualifying group 4 . The Swedes began their performance in the final part of the championship with the defeat of the Bulgarian national team with a score of 5: 0. In the second match, Sweden tied with Italy - 1: 1, in the third with Denmark - 2: 2. Sweden and Denmark reached the playoffs. In the match of the quarter finals of Sweden - Netherlands, the main and extra time ended with the score 0: 0, a penalty shootout brought the victory of the Netherlands national team - 5: 4. The best scorer of the Swedish national team at the tournament was 32-year-old Henrik Larsson, who scored 3 goals.

2006 World Cup

Sweden played in Group B at the 2006 World Cup . A distinctive feature of the team was that its players were players of clubs in eleven different national leagues. Sweden started in a match against the national team of Trinidad and Tobago (0: 0), despite the numerical advantage in one player for most of the match. The second game against the national team of Paraguay could end with the same result, however, thanks to the goal of Fredrik Jungberg in the 89th minute, the Swedes won 1-0. Then the Swedish team tied 2-2 against England and finished in a group with five points, which was enough to advance to the next round. In the 1/8 final match, the Swedish national team lost to the hosts of the tournament - the German national team - 0: 2.

European Championship 2008

The Swedish national team finished second in the qualifying group for the 2008 European Championship behind the Spanish national team . In this qualifying round, an incident occurred on June 2, 2007 , when a Danish fan ran out onto the field in the last minutes of the match in Copenhagen and attacked the referee who appointed a penalty in the hosts net at the 89th minute with a 3: 3 score. The match was interrupted, and later the Swedish team was awarded a technical victory 3-0 ^[3] .

The rivals of the Swedes in the group in the final tournament of Euro 2008 were Spain, Greece and Russia . The Swedes defeated the Greeks 2-0, then lost to the Spaniards 1: 2 (having conceded in the last added minute). In the decisive match against Russia, the Swedes lost 0: 2, and the Russian team won the Swedes for the first time in their history and went into the playoffs.

2010 World Cup

The Swedish national team did not qualify for the 2010 World Cup final, losing to the national teams of Denmark and Portugal in the qualifying group .

European Championship 2012

The Swedish squad held the qualifying games for Euro 2012 very confidently, having beaten the Netherlands team in the last match and entered the championship as the best team, who took second place in the group.

At Euro, the Swedes fell into a difficult group for the tournament hosts Ukraine and the traditionally strong teams of England and France . In the first match of the championship, “Tre Krunur” lost to Ukraine 1: 2, and in the second match in a bitter struggle they lost to England 2: 3 and lost their chances of reaching the playoffs. It is noteworthy that in these matches, Hamren's wards scored 1-0 and 2-1, respectively, but in the end they lost the advantage and lost. In an already meaningless match, the Swedes unexpectedly beat France, considered the group’s main favorite, 2-0. As a result of the tournament, the national team took 13th place as the best team to finish last in the Euro 2012 group.

2014 World Cup

Sweden was seeded as the second team in the qualifying group C, which in addition to it included the national teams of Germany , Ireland , Austria , Kazakhstan and the Faroe Islands . As expected, the Swedish team took second place, becoming the only team that took away the points from the Germans: visiting Sweden, losing 0-4, incredibly saved the match, scoring four goals for the Germans, and lost at home 3: 5 in a bitter struggle, although it led for a long time in the account. In the butt games, Sweden lost to Portugal 0: 1 away and 2: 3 at home, both goals against the Scandinavians were scored by Zlatan Ibrahimovic .

European Championship 2016

During the qualifying tournament for the European Championship in 2016, the Swedish team took third place in their group and entered the butt games. The rival of the Swedes was the national team of Denmark . The Swedes won in two matches with a total score of 4: 3. The author of three of the four goals against Danes Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

At the Euro itself, the Swedes fell into group E, which also included the teams of Italy , Belgium and Ireland . Following the results of three games, the Swedes took the last place in the group, gaining one point and not scoring a single goal. In addition, the captain of the team and the best scorer in its history Zlatan Ibrahimovic announced the end of his career in the national team at the age of 34.

2018 World Cup

The Swedes quite successfully performed in the qualifying group, having managed to take away points from the national teams of France and the Netherlands, leaving the latter behind themselves and hitting butt games. The rival of Sweden was the Italian team , in a home match the Italians were beaten 1-0, and the away match ended in a draw 0-0, which allowed the Swedish team to qualify for the world championship for the first time in 12 years (leaving Italians for the first time in 60 years ) In the group, the Swedes defeated the Republic of Korea (1: 0), but lost to Germany (1: 2). In the last match, the Swedes defeated Mexico 3-0 and reached the playoffs from first place in the group. In 1/8, the Swedes beat the Swiss with a minimum score of 1: 0, securing themselves access to the quarter-finals for the first time in 24 years, where they lost to the England team 0: 2.

World Championships

• * - lost an extra match;
• ** - won an extra match;
• *** - lost butt games.

European Championships

• * — выиграла стыковые матчи.

Впервые болельщики сборной Швеции были замечены на летних Олимпийских играх 1912 года , где они распевали песню «Heja Sverige Friskt humör, det är det som susen gör» . Первый массовый «выезд» поклонников шведской сборной состоялся на чемпионате мира 1974 года , и с тех пор на всех крупных турнирах присутствуют фанаты из этой северной страны. На чемпионате мира 2006 года на матче против сборной Парагвая сборную поддерживали около 50 000 человек.

Руководит движениями болельщиков Объединение болельщиков сборной Швеции Camp Sweden , которое отвечает и за организацию товарищеских встреч между сборными командами болельщиков ^[4] .

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See also: Sweden national football team players

As of October 22, 2017

The following players were called up to the national team by head coach Janne Andersson to participate in the matches of the 2020 European Championship qualifier against the Malta national team (June 7, 2019) and the Spanish national team (June 10, 2019).

The games and goals are as of June 10, 2019:

• King's Cup of Thailand: 1997, 2001, 2003, 2013 .

• Lapland National Football Team

• Official website of the Swedish Football Union (Swedish)
• Information on the UEFA website
• Reports on all matches of the Swedish national team since 1908 (Russian)
• Sweden squad 2013