Friday June 18, 2021
Leipzig star meets
Sweden wins pensioner duel against Slovakia
Emil Forsberg’s hit is enough for the Swedes. The bulwark holds again. With four points, the Scandinavians are about to move into the European Championship round of 16. The “second oldest game” in European Championship history has long been a tough affair.
The old Swedes are back: The “pensioner team” around the outstanding match winner Emil Forsberg has set course for the European Championship round of 16 with a late but well-deserved win against Slovakia. The Swedes won the “second oldest” European Championship game in history in St. Petersburg, Russia, 1-0 (0-0) and have four points ahead of the knockout round. The Leipzig Forsberg met in front of 20,000 spectators for the average 30.2-year-old Swedes in the 77th minute with a penalty kick. For the team of national coach Janne Andersson, a draw in the last game against Poland was enough to advance. Slovakia also has good cards with three points, but has to face Spain in the end.
“It will be important that we can play our game,” said Andersson before kick-off. For this, the Sweden coach once again relied on an extremely experienced starting eleven: his players were on average 30 years and 78 days old – but his team was still a little younger than the opponent from Slovakia. There was an “older” European Championship match only in 2008 between Greece and Sweden. Andersson’s announcement was only partially fruitful. His team had hardly ever got the ball against Spain, at least that changed from the start. However, there was again little to be seen of an offensive spectacle. That was also due to the Slovaks, who hardly took any risks. The most noticeable actor was Forsberg, who ran a lot and was always playable. On the other hand, striker Marcus Berg, who was sometimes badly offended after his big chance against Spain on the Internet, was initially unable to find a bond. Even hopeful Alexander Isak made too many mistakes when receiving the ball.
Referee Siebert convinced
The routine made itself felt at least in the extremely serene defensive action of both teams. Still, chances remained scarce, even if Slovakia got better into the game until the break. Martin Koscelnik, who moved into the starting line-up, made great pace on the right and hit dangerous crosses. However, his team was far from the efficiency of the opener against Poland (2-1). On the other hand, Daniel Siebert gave a strong performance again. The referee from Berlin was used for the second time at his first European Championship and was convincing again. Siebert let go a lot, had everything under control with good body language and remained confident even in tricky situations.
After the break there were finally chances, the game was now much livelier. Juraj Kucka first forced the Swedish goalkeeper Robin Olsen to make a brilliant save with his head (58th), shortly afterwards Bremen’s Ludwig Augustinsson failed in a similar situation to Martin Dubravka (60th).
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