Sweden
coach Roland Larsson insists his side’s semi-final clash with Nigeria
at Rashid Stadium in Dubai on Tuesday will be “a completely different
game” to the 3-3 result when the teams met in the group stages.
World Cup debutantes Sweden twice went
ahead against three-time champions Nigeria to lead 2-0 and 3-2 before
the Golden Eaglets fought back for a draw in Group F last month. It was
the only occasion so far in the tournament that Nigeria have looked
beatable.
However, Larsson is by no means stepping
into this fixture on an overconfident note, having watched Nigeria rack
up 20 goals so far.
“It’s another game,” said Larsson of the
semi-final. “We had a good first game against them but that’s history.
Now we are at the end of the tournament and there are a lot of new
aspects to the game like tired players. The best team will be the one
that has recovered the best.”
Asked what his side had learned from
their first match against Nigeria, Larsson said:
“We learned that if you
don’t stay focused against Nigeria for the full 90 minutes, you will
make a mistake and they will punish you.
“You have to follow a plan — run, fight
and cover — especially to take care of defence. But defence alone
doesn’t win games, so we also have to score and we scored three times
against Nigeria, so we are satisfied about that. Nigeria have high
quality individual skills and very good players. They play very fast
passing football and have many tools to score from — the centre, wings,
crosses and counters. It’s a complete team for attacking. We respect
Nigeria but we still feel we can beat them.”
