Sweden beat Serbia in final Euro warm-up
Reuters - Tuesday 05 June 2012, 20:39
Sweden edged Serbia 2-1 in
their final Euro 2012 warm-up match thanks to a second-half
Zlatan Ibrahimovic penalty but they were helped by some
goalkeeping errors from the visitors on Tuesday.
Serbia's substitute keeper Damir gave away the spot-kick
after coming on at half-time to replace Branimir Aleksic whose
fumble at a corner allowed Ola Toivonen to give Sweden the lead
before Neven Subotic equalised for the Serbs with a header.
Sweden, who face co-hosts Ukraine in their Group D opener in
Kiev on Monday, controlled the early stages and Sebastian
Larsson nearly scored in the fifth minute from 35 metres after
Aleksic cleared the ball straight to him.
Just as Serbia began to find their feet, however, Sweden
took the lead when Aleksic made a hash of a corner and the ball
fell to Toivonen who had a simple tap in after 23 minutes.
Sweden's Andreas Isaksson made a fine double save following
a Zoran Tosic free-kick just outside the area but Serbia
levelled from the resulting corner with a fine Subotic header -
the third headed goal the Swedes had conceded in two games.
The visitors were the better side for the rest of the first
half, forcing Isaksson to make several saves.
PENALTY CONCEDED
The Serbs brought on Damir for the nervy-looking Aleksic at
the break but he soon dragged down Toivonen in the area after
Rasumus Elm had opened up their defence with a slick pass.
Ibrahimovic, the top scorer in Serie A last season, buried
the spot kick in the bottom right corner after 52 minutes.
Sweden controlled the rest of a slow-paced second half and
could have extended their lead but for some good saves by Damir.
Ibrahimovic was not happy about Sweden conceding another
goal from a corner, however, and hoped the defence were getting
errors out of their system before the finals.
"That shouldn't be allowed to happen [conceding from a
corner]. It's now we can make mistakes and now everything can
go wrong - it can't be allowed to happen in six days' time," he
said.
"It's easier to correct if it happens at a dead ball
situation but it shouldn't happen either, not two matches in a
row. It's just a case of taking out the video and seeing what
went wrong."
After facing Ukraine, Sweden will play England and France
in the group stage of Euro 2012.