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"Finally something to cheer about for Hamren"With their elimination from the tournament already decided Sweden headed into their final fixture in Group D knowing that they only had their national pride to play for and Erik Hamren was determined that his side produce their best performance in order to give the significant in number vocal travelling support something to enjoy before they returned to Sweden early following their adventure into Poland and Ukraine. Sweden without the attacking duo of Johan Elmander and Rasmus Elm due to injury and illne s respectively would have to make minor changes to the side that gave Roy Hodgsons England such a scare on last Friday evening with many, and myself included Zach Parise Jersey believing that the Swedes did in fact deserve to gain at least a point out of that match with Emir Bajrami and Ola Toivonen being called into the starting eleven to face France. Following their elimination from the tournament Erik Hamren approached the match against France at the Olympic Stadium in Kyiv with a certain degree of pragmatism in the sense that he knew that on paper there was nothing for Sweden to play for yet he still was confident and hoped his side would put in the sort of display that would see his team avoid finishing the tournament on zero points alongside the Dutch, Hamren despite wanting to win the game was not in the mindset to take risks which we can see from the withdrawal of Elmander and Elm from the team due to not being one hundred percent fit. The 4-2-3-1 system favoured by Hamren was in use once again against the French with Anders Sven son keeping his place in the anchoring midfield role in what many expected to be the Thomas Vanek Jersey former Southampton mans final match of his international career, FC Twentes Emir Bajrami was given his first appearance of the tournament so far as expected replacing Rasmus Elm as one third of the attacking midfield trio that play just behind the lone striker and with the decision to leave Elmander out of the starting line up Ola Toivonen was placed in the lone striker role ahead of the more experienced Markus Rosenberg who hardly covered himself in glory with his performance in the tournament opener against co hosts Ukraine. Following the much improved performance against England there was the sense among Swedish media and the squad alike that they were finally becoming comfortable with Hamrens system in the tournament football arena with the last remnants of the Lars Lagerback conservative 4-4-2 system seemingly gone from the Swedish mindset. This improvement manifested itself even further in last nights fixture against the French with the Swedes producing by far their best performance of the tournament against albeit a lacklustre French side.The French knowing that even a defeat to Sweden could still see them qualify for the knockout stages headed into the match in a calm mindset however with the order of the final standings of the group there was still a significant amount to play for with the team that finishes second in the group having to travel to Donetsk and face the European and World Champions Spain. Yann MVila after recovering from an injury sustained in a pre tournament warm up match was given his first start of the competition after returning to the side for the final ten minutes in the 2-0 win over Ukraine, MVila in place of the more creative Yohan Cabaye alongside Alou Diarra at the heart of Les Tricolores midfield suggested that Laurent Blanc was looking for a display of more solidity from his side after they were poor defensively in both of their last two group games. Some would argue that this move would considerably le sen the attacking flair of the French however Blanc would have been confident that his attacking force of Ribery, Nasri and Benzema would have enough about them to cause an ageing Swedish defence problems. Blanc also dropped Jeremy Menez to the bench after his Chris Stewart Jersey impre sive display against Ukraine preferring the pace of Hatem Ben Arfa on the right hand side of the midfield, this may have been a tactical move to combat the pace of Martin Ol son after he showed signs of improvement against England.Sweden started the match in a composed manner that replicated how they finished the England game dictating the tempo of the match and controlling po se sion with a Martin Ol son cro s picking out the unmarked Ola Toivonen who headed wide when he really should have done better. Andreas Granqvist once again proved himself to be struggling with the pace of International football with Franck Ribery causing the Genoa right back considerable problems with his quick feet and trickery. The French however quickly used their technical superiority to their advantage in keep hold of the ball well with the Swedes seemingly happy for Les Bleus to keep the ball but create little with it. Much of the first half was played at a slow Eric Staal Jersey pace with the match e sentially in a dormant state however it was clear that Erik Hamrens Sweden had not just simply turned up for a friendly with fierce tackles from Olof Mellberg and the captain Zlatan Ibrahimovic stirring the crowd. Sweden appeared more balanced on the left hand side with Emir Bajrami in the team with his link up play with Martin Ol son being at times brilliant, the speed Bajrami po se ses was much more conducive to Ol sons game than the high technical ability of Elm with Sweden playing at a higher tempo than in previous matches. Granqvist was being given a really torrid time on the left hand side of the pitch with him seemingly unable to control Franck Ribery as previously mentioned and had Gael Clichy been more willing to get forward and support Ribery then France may well have been able to take charge of the match by constantly targeting Granqvist whom even before kickoff would have been diagnosed as the weak link in the Swedish back line. The first half in all honesty had turned into a really dour affair with the forward players on both sides becoming isolated and not being able to create chances for themselves, France seemed to lack the quick runs in behind that they had shown against both England and Ukraine and were seemingly flat and out of ideas against a packed Swedish defence, how much of this is down to fatigue nobody can be sure however the injection of pace that Blanc had hoped to achieve from selecting Ben Arfa to start had not been present causing many to wonder why the inform Menez had not been kept in the team. The heavily criticised French central defensive pairing of Adil Rami and Philippe Mexes were once again struggling with communication between the two being minimal at best which allowed Ola Toivonen to break free on several occasions however was ruled offside on all, the physical play of Toivonen albeit not shown with any great regularity throughout the first half was Nino Niederreiter Jersey causing Mexes in particular significant problems with the Milan defender being out jumped for headers consistently throughout the match.Despite the matc |
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發表於 2023-3-10 14:48:56
