Sweden gives England a CPR for morbid display on pitch

Sweden had to use a defibrillator to stop England from going into a permanent cardiac arrest in the second half. An own goal by Glenn Johnson and a second goal by Olof Mellberg acted like a shot of adrenaline to resuscitate the English players. Sweden had to smoke out their opposition from inside their half to seek out a win, though it eventually cost them the match towards the end.

Steven Gerrard must have felt a lump in his throat after Sweden took the lead just a day after he asserted in the press conference before the match, “with all due respect to Sweden, who are a good, strong team, they are not France.”

Before Theo Walcott‘s substitution in the second half, as things stood, England were being beaten at their own (long ball) game.

Walcott’s second touch of the game sent the ball crashing into Sweden’s goal. He volleyed the ball past two Swedish players, who were closing down fast, after steadying himself to take the shot. However, the ball appears to have taken a slight deflection off Sebastian Larsson foot as there is no reason why Isaksson should have been caught wrong-footed in goal.

An inspired substitution from Hodgson saw Walcott in the thick of things once again as he charged towards the Swedish backline, and squared the ball to Welbeck, who brilliantly backheeled the ball into the net.

Andy Carroll gave England the lead in the first half, after Steven Gerrard provided a gliding pass into the box for Carroll to prod home. Roy Hodgson was a happy man after today’s surprise selection did not backfire like it did against France. However, Carroll was late in arriving into the box for most of the game, particularly in the first half when Ashely Young chose to shoot rather than cross when he got behind Sweden’s defence.

England fell back to archaic football so they could exploit Sweden’s weakness in dealing with long balls. However, Sweden had the temerity to stretch England’s defence as they attacked from the middle. Zlatan Ibrahimovic showed the upper body strength of a bull as he took the English defence by the scruff of its neck and created problems for the English defence. His wayward passing in the first half might have cost Sweden a few chances, but he made up for his mistakes in the second half.

“I think we can be proud. We did well and were up against a great team. We were better than them. But the difference is that they scored three goals and we only scored two,” said Ibrahimovic after the match.

Theo Walcott can be singled out from the rest of the English team for his duracell bunny act in the last half-hour of the match. At the moment, winning a spot on the right midfield for England is like entering a sweepstakes hosted by Roy Hodgson. But Walcott has surely put his foot down for that spot ahead of James Milner and Oxlade-Chamberlain.

“I was really pleased with the performance of the front players, and Theo Walcott’s contribution was enormous. To come on as a substitute, score and then set up the winner means he’ll be very happy. I believe in Theo: he’s a good player with real quality. I’ve only been working with these players for a month and I’m still learning what they’re really good at and what areas we can find improvement but I was delighted with his performance,” said Roy Hodgson.

When Wayne Rooney becomes available for selection for their final group match against Ukraine, it will be interesting to see which two forwards he will pick for the game. Considering that Ukraine needs a win to stay in the tournament, it won’t be surprising to see England play the waiting game reminiscent of the opening match against France.

The Sweden-England game is as close as England can come to playing entertaining football and Roy Hodgson will be forgiven for humming, “I guess I’ll die another day.”