Sweden usually play English football better than we do.
They play it more intelligently than us.That’s why we find it so hard to beat them.
My conclusion from watching England draw 1-1 with France, and watching Sweden lose 2-1 to the Ukraine, is that we will be facing the best player in the tournament, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, in our next match.
Ibra is moody.
But he is a six foot five inch gladiator with phenomenal power, artistry and confidence. He can do everything : score wonder-goals, play people in, kill you with a free-kick, head goals or knock it down, score from 25 yards, and backheel it into the net when the ball is four feet off the ground.
Ibra can put England out of Euro 2012, I reckon.
So Roy Hodgson needs another game-plan.
He can’t just defend the box with two banks of four. And he can’t have tiny, tired Scott Parker making tackles on the AC Milan colossus.
Therefore, Roy should select rookie strong man Phil Jones in Parker’s position and have him man-mark Ibra. Then our back four would not have to play so deep.
Against France in Donetsk last night, England didn’t play.
But they scored first when Stevie G hit a free-kick of sensational velocity and accuracy which Joleon Lescott headed in from five yards.
Not suprisingly, Hugo Lloris didn’t fancy a 50-50 with the Man City defender and England were 1-0 up in 30 minutes.
Nine minutes later, City midfielder Nasri scored after a tidy move of six passes. His disguised shot from the edge of the box bounced inside Joe Hart’s near post.
Ashley Young had produced one nice pass into James Milner’s diagonal run but Milner’s touch was too heavy as he took it round the advancing Lloris, and he could only scuff a weak effort several yards wide as he fell over.
We hoped England could draw & they did. We scrambled a point.
The main element missing in the Donbass Arena was an athletic Englishman who could make adventurous long runs to join Young and Welbeck.
When Stevie G did that once, he was bodychecked by a defender on the edge of the box, but the Italian ref waved play on.
He should have waved play on when Debuchy got his pass in a split-second before Oxlade’s blocking leg arrived. That wasn’t a reckless tackle, or even a free-kick. But the little creep gave Oxlade a yellow card.
As well as shackling the great Ibra, Phil Jones can break forward at pace to join Welbeck, Young and Oxlade, giving us the momentum and options we lacked against France.
Our final ball was non-existent because Welbeck and Oxlade are sparky kids who lack the nous to make the right decisions on when to pass and where to pass.
In Kiev, Shevchenko wrote a fairytale for his people.
This action-packed game had atmosphere, good moves, saves, fine diagonal passes,a terrific goal by Ibrahimovic, then two headers by Shevchenko.
Mellberg was on his heels for the first one, as Sheva plunged forward to head home, reminding us of what he did in his pomp with AC Milan.
Then Ukraine got a corner on the left and the delivery was as wicked and cunning as the movement of Sheva on the post, as he dodged delightfully round near-post defender Ibrahimovic to score again with another perfectly-timed bullet header.
What a fairytale ! What a great moment !
Coach Oleg Blokhin went wild, just like the crowd.
The fans had been waiting and hoping for something like that for a long time. A very long time.
The co-hosts were the last team to play.
Their captain, a gentleman gladiator, is now a 35-year old crock.
He said, “I’m overwhelmed with emotion. This is something fantastic. I want to thank the boys and our fans. For us every game is like a final.
“I couldn’t have dreamt what happened today. It’s a great feeling for me. I’m so happy. I feel 10 years younger.
“I want to say thank you to everyone who worked with me six months ago. I couldn’t imagine I would play in the Euros. I had lots of problems with my knee and back, but a lot of people helped me to get in a good condition. It was probably one of my best games of the last season.
“It’s a great day for Ukraine. This is an historic win, but we have two very tough games to go. We have a great chance to go through but we should not be too euphoric yet. We don’t want to relax. France and England will be very tough.”
Well done, son. I’m really thrilled for him.
Shevchenko, playing for Dynamo Kiev against Arsenal in 1999, was the most electrifying striker I ever saw at Wembley.
And I’ve seen Batistuta,Van Basten, Romario and many other superstars there.
Andrei Shevchenko was European Footballer of the Year in 2004.