Euro 2009 Contenders - Sweden

As hosts of the tournament, Sweden enjoyed the luxury of automatic qualification - and that will have come as a relief as they failed to qualify for the previous two Championships.

Despite their lack of competitive action, the Swedes played in a string of matches to prepare for the tournament. After a disappointing run of results in the first half of 2008, they stunned Holland when they beat them 3-0 in November.

They also earned credible draws against Spain and Italy in recent months.

Star Man
If Sweden are to progress in this tournament they are going to need their main goalscoring threat Marcus Berg to be on top form.

A firm fans’ favourite at Goteborg, Berg scored 14 times in 17 appearances to help guide the club to the league title in 2007. The £2.5m FC Groningen paid for his services looks to be money well spent with Berg continuing his goalscoring exploits in the Dutch league, scoring 18 goals in his first full season for Groningen.

Manager
The coaching duo of Tommy Soderberg and Jorgen Lennartsson have been in charge of the Sweden Under-21 team since 2006.

Soderberg was manager of the senior side for six years from 1998. He took Sweden to the World Cup in 2002 and to two European Championships in 2000 and 2004. Before becoming national team manager, Soderberg occupied his current position as Under-21 manager for two years and he has 22 years of experience managing a host of club sides in Sweden.

Lennartsson has been coaching since retiring from playing football at the tender age of 23. After working with various youth teams in his homeland, he moved to Helsingborgs to oversee their youth team and then went on to become their assistant manager.

His first management job with a senior side came in 2002 when he took over at BK Hacken. In 2004, he began working with Sweden’s U17s and Under-21s before he and Soderberg were officially handed the Under-21 job in 2006.

The Sweden Squad

Goalkeepers
Johan Dahlin (FC Lyn Oslo), Pär Hansson (Helsingborgs IF), Kristoffer Nordfeldt (Brommapojkarna).

Defenders
Rasmus Bengtsson (Trelleborgs FF), Mattias Bjärsmyr (IFK Göteborg), Joel Ekstrand (Helsingborgs IF), Emil Johansson (Hammarby), Per Karlsson (AIK Solna), Mikael Lustig (Rosenborg BK), Martin Olsson (Blackburn Rovers FC).

Midfielders
Emir Bajrami (IF Elfsborg), Pierre Bengtsson (AIK Solna), Rasmus Elm (Kalmar FF), Labinot Harbuzi (Malmö FF), Andreas Landgren (Helsingborgs IF), Guillermo Molins (Malmö FF), Gabriel Özkan (AIK Solna), Robin Söder (IFK Göteborg), Gustav Svensson (IFK Göteborg).

Forwards
Denni Avdic (IF Elfsborg), Marcus Berg (FC Groningen), Ola Toivonen (PSV Eindhoven), Pontus Wernbloom (IFK Göteborg).


Competition History

Runners up: 1992
Semi-Finalists: 1990, 2004

Sweden haven’t been present at the last two Under-21 European Championships, but as hosts gained automatic entry in the 2009 finals. Their last appearance was in 2004 when they reached the Semi-Finals.

Their biggest achievement in this competition was in 1992 when the team, inspired by Tomas Brolin, progressed to the Final where they were beaten by Italy.