Sweden v Switzerland - Sweden, with no stars and little flash, grinds into World Cup quarterfinals - 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia - Match 55

Sweden? Yeah. This World Cup has been boasting the small and the smallish from Belgium to Croatia to Uruguay to a small-ranked team from large Russia — and don’t omit Iceland — so it might as well go ahead and flaunt a continuing display of Swedish guts.

Swedish guts, formed and toughened near (and inside) the Arctic Circle, will grace the World Cup quarterfinals because Sweden did to Switzerland what it did to the Netherlands and Italy in qualifying and to Mexico and Germany (indirectly) in the big show: bummed it out. Shoot (or not), Sweden’s 1-0 win in stunning St. Petersburg Stadium on Tuesday might have seen its most telling moments in two candidates for the Hall of Fame of Lousy Finishes, both by Sweden.

One came in the eighth minute when Marcus Berg sprang free to the right of the goal and then sprayed the shot so awry it seemed bound for the Baltic Sea. The other came in the 41st after a dazzling leftward cross from Mikael Lustig cleared a little thicket of players in front of the goal to find its way gorgeously to Albin Ekdal’s right foot, which redirected it so hopelessly over the goal that one could plausibly cry.

“We’re talking football here, and football is a game played by a team,” Sweden Manager Janne Andersson said. “Never forget that.”

All right.

SOURCE:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/soccer-insider/wp/2018/07/03/sweden-vs-switzerland-2018-world-cup/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.7c66cea74c2c