Sweden got exactly the results it was looking for in its warm-up friendlies ahead of the European Championship, and it had nothing to do with winning the games.
Sweden got exactly the results it was looking for in its warm-up friendlies ahead of the European Championship, and it had nothing to do with winning the games.
Sweden traveled to Euro 2012 on Wednesday boosted by victories over Iceland and Serbia but perhaps more encouraged by the fact that Zlatan Ibrahimovic seems to have kept his good scoring form. He also looks to have found a perfect role in the team.
Coach Erik Hamren has deployed Ibrahimovic as a playmaker in a No. 10 role in recent games rather than at center forward — a position the AC Milan striker clearly enjoys.
"I get the ball more, and play a more active part in our game," Ibrahimovic said. "When you get the ball a lot, you feel good. And when I do get it I try to create dangerous chances, both for myself and my teammates."
Ibrahimovic scored a second-half penalty on June 5 in a 2-1 win over Serbia, which came after a goal and an assist during the first 15 minutes of a 3-2 victory against Iceland last week.
If Sweden is to advance from Group D, Ibrahimovic will likely need to continue to carry a large part of the scoring burden in Kyiv, where it faces Ukraine, England and France.
With no other major star on the team, Hamren knows just how important it is to get "Ibra" playing at his best.
"That means we have a world-class player on our team, and the world-class players are the ones that can decide a game," Hamren said. "But it won’t matter that Zlatan is in top form if the other players aren’t. We have to be at our best, all of us, during these two weeks. Then we’ll have a chance, because then he can be the one who tips things in our favor."
The goal against Serbia took Ibrahimovic’s tally to 31 in 77 internationals, and the 30-year-old forward is coming off a season where he netted a career-high 28 league goals for AC Milan to lead all scorers in Serie A.
But his place in the Sweden lineup has been questioned sometimes, as some critics say the team as a whole does better without his massive presence — and ego.
The statistics back up that view somewhat: Ibrahimovic has played in 20 European Championship qualifiers in his career, with Sweden winning 11 of those and drawing four. Of the 10 he has missed, Sweden won all of them — including a 3-2 victory over the Netherlands last year that clinched a spot in Poland and Ukraine as the best group runner-up.
However, he has also scored a slew of important goals for Sweden at major tournaments and in qualifiers, and Hamren made it clear that this is Ibrahimovic’s team by making him captain ahead of this latest qualifying campaign.
And "Ibra" is eager to prove any doubters wrong at the Euros.
"This is where you want to play. All the top players are in these tournaments, and that’s the group you want to belong to," he said. "Just to experience it is huge. We’re facing good opponents, it’s not an easy group. But we’re in the Euros because we’re good, too."
With or without Ibrahimovic, though, Hamren insisted Sweden is a big underdog in the group.
"England and France are the big, big favorites," he said.
