European Football Championship 2004 / Sweden

This article covers the Swedish national team at the 2004 European Football Championship .

qualification

Final table of group 4

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Pt.
1	Sweden	8th	5	2	1	19: 03	17th
2	Latvia	8th	5	1	2	10: 06	16
3	Poland	8th	4th	1	3	11: 07	13
4th	Hungary	8th	3	2	3	15: 09	11
5	San Marino	8th	0	0	8th	00:30	00

Game results

07.09.2002	Latvia	-	Sweden	0-0
10/12/2002	Sweden	-	Hungary	1: 1 (0: 1)
04/02/2003	Hungary	-	Sweden	1: 2 (0: 1)
06/07/2003	San Marino	-	Sweden	0: 6 (0: 1)
06/11/2003	Sweden	-	Poland	3: 0 (2: 0)
09/06/2003	Sweden	-	San Marino	5: 0 (1: 0)
09/10/2003	Poland	-	Sweden	0: 2 (0: 2)
10/11/2003	Sweden	-	Latvia	0: 1 (0: 1)

Swedish contingent

No.	Surname	Club before the start of the European Championship	birthday	Games	Gates
goalkeeper
1	Andreas Isaksson	Djurgårdens IF	10/03/1981	4th	0	0	0	0
12	Magnus Hedman	AC Ancona	03/19/1973	0	0	0	0	0
23	Magnus Kihlstedt	FC Copenhagen	02/29/1972	0	0	0	0	0
Defender
2	Teddy Lučić	Bayer 04 Leverkusen	04/15/1973	1	0	0	0	0
3	Olof Mellberg	Aston Villa	09/03/1977	4th	0	0	0	0
4th	Johan Mjällby	Celtic Glasgow	02/09/1971	0	0	0	0	0
5	Erik Edman	SC Heerenveen	11/11/1978	3	0	2	0	0
7th	Mikael Nilsson	Halmstads BK	06/24/1978	4th	0	0	0	0
13	Petter Hansson	SC Heerenveen	December 14, 1976	0	0	0	0	0
14th	Alexander Östlund	Hammarby IF	11/02/1978	1	0	1	0	0
15th	Andreas Jakobsson	Brøndby IF	06.10.1972	4th	0	0	0	0
22nd	Erik Wahlstedt	Helsingborgs IF	04/16/1976	0	0	0	0	0
midfield player
6th	Tobias Linderoth	Everton FC	04/21/1979	3	0	2	0	0
8th	Not so Svensson	Southampton FC	07/17/1976	3	0	0	0	0
9	Freddie Ljungberg	Arsenal FC	04/16/1977	4th	1	0	0	0
16	Kim Källström	Rennes stadium	08/24/1982	4th	0	1	0	0
17th	Andersson is different	Belenenses Lisbon	03/15/1974	1	0	0	0	0
19th	Pontus Farnerud	Racing Strasbourg	06/04/1980	0	0	0	0	0
21st	Christian Wilhelmsson	RSC Anderlecht	December 8, 1979	4th	0	0	0	0
striker
10	Zlatan Ibrahimović	Ajax Amsterdam	10/03/1981	4th	2	2	0	0
11	Henrik Larsson	Celtic Glasgow	09/20/1971	4th	3	0	0	0
18th	Mattias Jonson	Brøndby IF	January 16, 1974	3	1	0	0	0
20th	Marcus Allbäck	Aston Villa	07/05/1973	3	1	0	0	0
Trainer
	Tommy Soderberg		08/19/1948
	Lars Lagerbäck		07/16/1948

Swedish team games

Group stage

Sweden scored in Group C in Italy , which played it four years previously in a group, Bulgaria and Denmark . In a close decision, Sweden prevailed over Denmark as group winners.

Before the last game, Sweden and Denmark sufficed a draw, in which both teams had to score at least two goals, because of the better direct comparison with Italy. When the game ended in a 2-2 draw shortly before the final whistle due to a mistake by Danish goalkeeper Thomas Sørensen , the Italian press sensed an agreement between the northern European teams.

Table group B
space	team	Gates	Pt.
1	Sweden	8: 3	5
2	Denmark	4: 2	5
3	Italy	3: 2	5
4th	Bulgaria	1: 9	0

June 14, 2004, José Alvalade Stadium
Sweden	-	Bulgaria	5-0
June 18, 2004, Estádio do Dragão
Italy	-	Sweden	1: 1
June 22nd 2004, Bessa Stadium
Denmark	-	Sweden	2: 2

Quarter finals

• Sweden - Netherlands 0: 0 aet, 4: 5 i. E.

On June 26, 2004, Sweden faced the Netherlands in the Algarve Stadium . After 120 goalless minutes with offensive advances by both teams, the match between Portugal and England was followed by the second penalty shootout of the European Championship. After all the players except Zlatan Ibrahimović and Phillip Cocu had hit, Edwin van der Sar saved Olof Mellberg's penalty and ended all Swedish dreams.

Although the Swedes were eliminated in the quarter-finals, the team with their controlled and tactically disciplined game on offense and defense was considered one of the positive surprises of the tournament. Sweden proved that two equal coaches can lead a team to success.