England vs Sweden, World Cup 2018: Janne Andersson's men believe they will beat Three Lions in quarter-final
A view from the opposition camp ahead of Saturday's World Cup quarter-final
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Your support makes all the difference.A bullish Sweden team firmly believe they can beat England in Saturday’s World Cup quarter-final, as they’ve already overcome supposedly “nightmare opposition” in this tournament.
Sweden came through their own tense last-16 game with Switzerland thanks to Emil Forsberg’s deflected winner, and that only emboldened the self-belief of an astute side that has already defied expectation this summer.
It has led to a lot of confidence in the squad, according to Forsberg.
“It doesn’t matter to me,” he said when asked who he would rather play after the win over Switzerland. “We’ve had ‘nightmare opposition’ all the time. We can beat them as well.”
This was a view shared by Hamburg’s Albin Ekdal and Celtic’s Mikael Lustig.
“I don’t care who we play,” Ekdal said. “We are so confident in our own game. We can beat anyone.
Lustig said “Historically England seem to have been a good fit for us. This tournament has shown again and again that there’s an upset waiting to happen. We don’t feel as if we’re done yet.”
Andreas Granqvist meanwhile addressed suggestions that England feel they have a hugely favourable route to the final, and that everything has been falling into place for Gareth Southgate’s team.
“I read something about that,” he said. “Someone said something about 99 times out of 100 they would beat us? Well, it’s fun for England to have that sort of confidence. Let’s play the game and see how things go.”
There was still a healthy respect for England, though.
“England is a very good side,” Granqvist said. “They’ve changed the way they play, before they were more direct and played the long ball, now they are more skilful, they have very quick players. We know Sweden usually play well against England. We have had good results against them, so to me it doesn’t really matter.”
Martin Olsson offered a similar sentiment, but the Swansea City defender also spoke of how he’s looking forward to the game after playing for so long in the English league.
“I’ve played there for 13 years now and I know most of the players. It would be fun,” he said.
“They’re offensive now, lots of quick playes, technically gifted and they run a lot. They’ve got mentality as well I think, they don’t like losing. It’s a team that won’t give up.”
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