Each Wednesday from now until the tournament kicks-off, TheFA.com will be profiling all the countries partipating at Euro 2004.

Sweden are in Euro 2004 Group C with Bulgaria, Italy and Denmark. They have joint-managers Lars Lagerbäck and Tommy Söderberg and a strong Premiership congingent in their squad, six of whom have been called up for the friendly against England on 31st March – Olof Mellberg and Marcus Allback (Aston Villa), Michael Svensson and Anders Svensson (Southampton), Tobias Linderoth (Everton) and Freddie Ljungberg (Arsenal).

The Stats

Sweden’s best European Championship performance came in 1992 when they reached the semi-finals on home soil; beating England on the way with a wonder goal from Tomas Brolin.

The last of their 19 matches against England came at the 2002 World Cup, ending in a 1-1 draw; Sol Campbell scoring for England and Alexandersson replying for Sweden.

Goalkeeper Tomas Ravelli won a record 143 caps for his country, their highest home attendance is 52,943 for a game against West Germany in 1965 and there are 214,000 registered players in Sweden – 20% are women.

Their top players ply their trade all around Europe and only two home-based players have been included in the squad to face England.

The Opinion

Swedish midfielder Tobias Linderoth is looking to the youngsters to fill the considerable shoes vacated by the international retirement of Henrik Larsson.

"Henrik is one of the best strikers in Europe, a player of his ability would be missed by any country," says 24-year-old Linderoth, whose father played for Sweden in the 1978 World Cup and now coaches Swedish League team Hammarby.

"There are a good few interesting players coming through at international level though. Zlatan Ibrahimovic at Ajax is a good player and Kim Kallstrom, who plays for the French side Rennais, is doing well.

"I think everyone is used to our players going abroad. Everyone is professional enough to cope with it and we are all proud to go back home to play for Sweden so it’s not really a problem for us."

Linderoth is also crossing his fingers an ex-team mate may figure in Portugal. Niclas Alexandersson has left Everton to play for Gothenburg and with the Swedish League season starting in April, he knows regular first-team football will help his cause.

"Niclas was very good to me when I first came to England," says Linderoth.

"He and his wife looked after me and my girlfriend and showed us around the area. I was very grateful to them. The timing is right for him to go back, he will get some training in and some friendlies and be ready for the new season next month."

Everton manager David Moyes helped Sweden’s cause by giving Linderoth a week off when there was a fixture gap earlier this month, something he also did for other likely Euro 2004 performers Wayne Rooney and Thomas Gravesen.

"It was good because I came back nice and fresh and ready to get going again," said Linderoth, one of the best holding players in the Premiership.

"It was nice to take my mind off football for a while and relax. Otherwise I would have gone to Euro 2004 having played virtually a full year."

The Colour

The achievements of Henrik Larsson and Freddie Ljungberg have made football sexy in Sweden, where previously sporting heroes came from other disciplines – most notably Bjorn Borg (tennis) and iconic 1970s ski slalom legend Ingemar Stenmark.

Stenmark was so famous that ABBA attended a party given in his honour before he went to the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid.

Season Adjustment Disorder (SAD), where depression can be caused by the short number of daylight hours in winter, is hard to counter in Sweden.

There is no daylight at all in the north of the country between mid-December and mid-January when temperatures can fall to -30 degrees Celsius, although the flip side is 24-hour light in mid-summer. Sleeping can be a problem then, and if you are in Stockholm or other cities you will notice the thickness of the curtains to keep the light out.

On the football front, Sweden beat us 2-1 in a Euro 2000 qualifier but ended up helping us out, defeating Poland 2-0 in their final group game to allow England to qualify via the play-offs.

The Matches

Date

Opponents

Venue

Comp

KO

14 Jun 04

Bulgaria

Lisbon (José Alvalade)

ECF

1945

18 Jun 04

Italy

Porto (Dragão)

ECF

1945

22 Jun 04

Denmark

Porto (Bessa)

ECF

1945


The Squad

Player

Club

Posn

Caps

Goals

Andreas Isaksson

Djurgardens

G

17

0

Magnus Hedman

Ancona (Ita)

G

54

0

Magnus Kihlstedt

FC Copenhagen (Den)

G

13

0

Christoffer Andersson

Lillestrom

D

18

0

Mikael Dorsin

RC Strasbourg (Fra)

D

5

0

Erik Edman

SC Heerenveen (Hol)

D

18

0

Andreas Jakobsson

Brondby (Den)

D

31

1

Teddy Lucic

Bayer Leverkusen (Ger)

D

58

0

Olof Mellberg

Aston Villa (Eng)

D

41

1

Johan Mjallby

Celtic (Sco)

D

45

4

Michael Svensson

Southampton (Eng)

D

25

0

Marcus Allback

Aston Villa (Eng)

F

36

16

Anders Andersson

Belenenses (Por)

M

21

2

Johan Elmander

Breda (Hol)

M

8

3

Pontus Farnerud

Strasbourg (Fra)

M

7

0

Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Ajax (Hol)

F

20

7

Kim Kallstrom

Stade Rennais (Hol)

M

16

1

Tobias Linderoth

Everton (Eng)

M

33

1

Fredrik Ljungberg

Arsenal (Eng)

M/F

39

3

Mikael Nilsson

Halmstads

M

14

3

Anders Svensson

Southampton (Eng)

M

44

10

Christian Wilhelmmson

Anderlecht (Bel)

F

44

10


Statistics up to date as of Sweden v England, 31 March 2004