England 0-2 Sweden

International Friendly
Bootham Crescent, York City FC
29 April 2004

Goals from Joakim Sjohage and Colo Halit in each half saw England go down to a defeat at York City’s Bootham Crescent ground.

Profligate finishing cost England dear as they failed to capitalise on a number of good opportunities in front of goal.

England made most of the early running and Sweden keeper Par Hansson was forced to come off his line quickly to gather the ball as James Morrison threatened.

Morrison, who scored the winner against Belgium last month, should have given the young Lions a tenth minute lead. Keith Barker beat Jesper Westerberg in the area and squared to Morrison who totally miscued from close-range.

Jamie O’Hara forced Hansson into a save after firing in a long-range effort and the keeper also kept out a shot from Gary Liddle before Sweden opened the scoring.

With 19 minutes on the clock, Jimmy Hellstrom’s hopeful ball forward found Sjohage who was through on goal. Sjohage’s initial shot was well saved by Tom Heaton, but he followed up to turn home the rebound.

Morrison tried to shake off the attentions of Oskar Ronningberg with a neat turn inside the area, but the defender cut out the danger with a well-timed challenge.

Richard Jones was penalised for impeding Gabriel Ozkan, but Marco Kotilainen’s 20-yard free-kick struck the defensive wall.

Morrison was in the thick of the action towards the end of the half and his low cross found O’Hara who missed the target from a good position.

Another Morrison cross just evaded Tom Carter at the far post. Keeper Hansson then did well to tackle Morrison on the edge of the area as the Middlesbrough youngster looked for an opening.

Will Hoskins replaced Carter at the interval and the Rotherham starlet was soon involved in the action, putting over a low cross that Barker missed by a fraction.

Morrison went desperately close to equalising in the 55th minute when his looping header from a Lee Peltier cross was well tipped over by Hansson.

The Swedes threatened when Kotilainen found space inside the area, but his effort was deflected wide.

However, England continued to have most of the play and Liddle was unfortunate to see his dipping long-range volley clear the bar.

Martin Hunter made another change with Kyle Nix taking over from Barker. Nix soon delivered a dangerous ball across the face of goal which was hacked clear by a defender.

England found themselves two goals down on 74 minutes when substitute Halit held off two defenders before beating Heaton with a superb right-foot shot from 20 yards.

Hunter responded by making a third substitution in the hope of sparking a revival, sending on Andrew Taylor in place of O’Hara.

But England never looked like forcing their way back into the game, although Liddle went close to scoring with a volley that flashed wide and Hoskins had an effort saved.

Team Details

England: Heaton, Peltier, Taylor, Jones, Bates, Cranie (Mills 83), Morrison, Liddle, Barker (Nix 66), O’Hara (Taylor 78), Carter (Hoskins 46)

Sweden: Hansson, Bjarsmyr, Johansson (Mahr 46), Karlsson, Ronningberg, Westerberg, Hellstrom, Kotilainen, Sjohage (Halit 46), Tolvonen (Mellqvist 58), Ozkan

Goals: Sjohage 19, Halit 74