Football World Cup 1974 / Sweden

This article covers the Swedish national football team at the 1974 World Cup .

qualification

Sweden scored in the qualifying Group 1 in Austria , Hungary and Malta .

Sweden started the qualification on May 25, 1972 in Stockholm with a 0-0 draw against Hungary. After a 2-0 defeat against Austria in Vienna on June 10, things initially looked bad for the Northern Europeans. On October 15th, a befitting 7-0 win against Malta was achieved in Gothenburg . Three goals by Ralf Edström (2nd, 32nd, 64th), two goals by Bo Larsson (18th, 35th) and one goal each from Roland Sandberg and Dag Szepanski , who scored from a penalty in his only international match , sealed the match first victory in the qualifying round.

On May 23, 1973 there was a return match against Austria in Gothenburg. Two goals from Roland Sandberg and one goal from Ove Grahn helped the Swedes to a 3-2 win. On the Austrian side, Kurt Jara and Gustl Starek met. On June 13, Budapest saw a 3-3 draw between the Hungarian and Swedish teams. Mihály Kozma had shot his colors in the lead in the 9th minute, Ove Kindvall was able to equalize before the break. In the 57th minute, Sandberg scored the opening goal for the Blågult , but Csaba Vidáts almost equalized in return . Sándor Zámbó put the Magyars in the lead again in the 71st minute. In the 77th minute, Edström scored the final score.

A win by two goals would have been enough for Sweden to take first place in the qualifying group. However, goals from Kindvall and a converted penalty from Bo Larsson only achieved a 2-1 win in Valletta . Thus, the Swedish selection was tied with Austria and Hungary, but the Hungarians had the worse goal difference.

On November 27, Sweden and Austria met in Gelsenkirchen in the play-off for group victory. Sandberg put the Swedes in the lead in the 12th minute. In the 28th minute of the game, Bo Larsson increased the penalty to 2-0. Roland Hattenberger was able to shorten in the 39th minute, but it was the only Austrian goal that evening and thus the Swedish national team qualified for the world championship tournament in Germany.

date	encounter	Result
May 25, 1972	Sweden - Hungary	0: 0 (0: 0)
June 10, 1972	Austria - Sweden	2: 0 (0: 0)
October 15, 1972	Sweden - Malta	7: 0 (5: 0)
May 23, 1973	Sweden - Austria	3: 2 (1: 0)
June 13, 1973	Hungary - Sweden	3: 3 (1: 1)
November 11, 1973	Malta - Sweden	1: 2 (1: 2)
Playoff
date	encounter	Result
November 27, 1973	Sweden - Austria	2: 1 (2: 1)

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Sweden	15: 8	8: 4
2	Austria	14: 7	8: 4
3	Hungary	12: 7	8: 4
4th	Malta	1:20	0:12

Swedish contingent

No.	Surname	Club before the start of the World Cup	birthday	Games	Gates
goalkeeper
1	Ronnie Hellström	1. FC Kaiserslautern	02/21/1949	6th	0	0	0
12	Sven-Gunnar Larsson	Örebro SK	May 10, 1940	0	0	0	0
17th	Göran Hagberg	Östers IF	11/08/1947	0	0	0	0
Defender
2	Jan Olsson	Åtvidabergs FF	03/30/1942	4th	0	0	0
3	Kent Karlsson	Åtvidabergs FF	11/25/1945	6th	0	0	0
4th	Björn Nordqvist	PSV Eindhoven	10/06/1942	5	0	1	0
5	Bjorn Andersson	Östers IF	07/20/1951	4th	0	1	0
13	Roland Grip	IK Sirius	01/01/1941	3	0	0	0
18th	Jörgen Augustsson	Åtvidabergs FF	10/28/1952	1	0	0	0
midfield player
6th	Ove Grahn	Grasshoppers Club Zurich	05/09/1943	6th	0	2	0
7th	Bo Larsson	Malmö FF	05/05/1944	5	0	0	0
14th	Staffan Tapper	Malmö FF	07/10/1948	5	0	0	0
16	Inge Ejderstedt	Östers IF	December 24, 1946	2	0	0	0
19th	Claes Cronqvist	Landskrona BoIS	October 15, 1944	0	0	0	0
20th	Sven Lindman	Djurgårdens IF	04/19/1942	0	0	0	0
21st	Örjan Persson	Örgryte IS	08/27/1942	2	0	1	0
22nd	Thomas Ahlström	IF Elfsborg	07/17/1952	2	0	0	0
striker
8th	Conny Torstensson	FC Bayern Munich	08/28/1949	5	1	0	0
9	Ove Kindvall	IFK Norrköping	May 16, 1943	2	0	0	0
10	Ralf Edström	PSV Eindhoven	07.10.1952	6th	4th	0	0
11	Roland Sandberg	1. FC Kaiserslautern	December 16, 1946	6th	2	0	0
15th	Benno Magnusson	1. FC Kaiserslautern	02/04/1953	4th	0	0	0
Trainer
	Georg Ericson		December 18, 1919

First final round

Sweden, the “outsider” only in pot 4 at the draw , was drawn into Group III and met Bulgaria , the Netherlands and the two-time world champions Uruguay .

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Netherlands	6: 1	5: 1
2	Sweden	3-0	4: 2
3	Bulgaria	2: 5	2: 4
4th	Uruguay	1: 6	1: 5

June 15, 1974 in the Rheinstadion , Düsseldorf
Sweden	-	Bulgaria	0-0
June 19, 1974 in the Westfalenstadion , Dortmund
Netherlands	-	Sweden	0-0
June 23, 1974 in the Rheinstadion , Düsseldorf
Sweden	-	Uruguay	3-0

On June 15, 1974, the Swedes' first group match at the World Cup took place in Düsseldorf . In the Rhein Stadium 0 Draws: Sweden and Bulgaria 0 parted. Also in the second group game, which took place on June 19 at Dortmund's Westfalenstadion , no goals were scored. One point was wrested from one of the top favorites of the tournament, the selection of the Netherlands.

After a 3-0 win against Uruguay on June 23, again in Düsseldorf's Rheinstadion, Sweden surprisingly qualified as second in the group for the second final round. Edström (46th, 77th) and Sandberg (74th) scored the first three Swedish tournament goals. Together with Brazil , Sweden were the only team that could survive the preliminary round without conceding a goal.

Second final round

For the first time in the history of the World Championships, the finalists were not played by the best eight teams in the first group phase, not in a knockout round, but in a further group phase. As runners-up in Group III , Sweden made it into Group B of the second final round of the tournament. Here the team met Poland , the hosts Germany and Yugoslavia .

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	BR Germany	7: 2	6-0
2	Poland	3: 2	4: 2
3	Sweden	4: 6	2: 4
4th	Yugoslavia	2: 6	0: 6

June 26, 1974 in Neckarstadion , Stuttgart
Sweden	-	Poland	0: 1
June 30, 1974 in the Rheinstadion , Düsseldorf
BR Germany	-	Sweden	4: 2
July 3, 1974 in the Rheinstadion , Düsseldorf
Sweden	-	Yugoslavia	2: 1

Lato leaves Karlsson (left) and Hellström (below) behind in the 1-0 winning goal

The Swedish team started on June 26, 1974 in the Neckar Stadium in Stuttgart in front of 43,755 spectators under the direction of the Uruguayan referee Ramón Barreto with a 1-0 defeat against the secret favorites Poland, who were considered to be one of the technically best teams in the tournament. The striker Grzegorz Lato , who would later win the Golden Boot as the tournament's top scorer, scored the decisive goal shortly before the break when he overcame the Kaiserslautern goalkeeper Hellström with a header in the 43rd minute of the game.

Edström (r.) Gives Sweden the lead against Germany

In the second game Sweden met on June 30, 1974 on the hosts, who had surprisingly only finished second in the group in the preliminary round. The game, whistled by referee Pawel Kasakow from the Soviet Union, turned into an exciting game in front of 66,500 spectators in the Düsseldorf Rheinstadion. Edström put the underdog in the lead in the 24th minute. Only in the second half did Wolfgang Overath score the 1-1 equalizer in the 51st minute, but Rainer Bonhof scored the second goal for Germany just one minute later. With this one-two punch, the game seemed to have been turned, but in return Sweden managed to equalize again through two-time Swedish top scorer Sandberg. Jürgen Grabowski shot Germany again in the lead in the 76th minute and shortly before the final whistle, Uli Hoeneß made everything clear with the goal to make it 4-2 with a penalty kick.

Olsson can not prevent a cross from the Yugoslav Džajić

Since Yugoslavia had also lost the first two games of the intermediate round, the two teams with no points met on July 3, 1974 in Düsseldorf under the direction of the referee Luis Pestarino from Argentina for a more or less meaningless game for third place in the intermediate round group. Ivica Šurjak brought the Balkan team 1-0 in front of 40,000 spectators in the 27th minute, but Edström equalized with his fourth goal just two minutes later. In the 85th minute, Torstensson scored the goal for a 2-1 win. With this, Sweden finished the world championship as third in the group.