ZURICH (Reuters) - The return of the evergreen Henrik Larsson and the individual brilliance of strike partner Zlatan Ibrahimovic could not prevent a sluggish Sweden from being eliminated at the group stage of Euro 2008.

The surprise decision by 36 year-old Larsson -- voted Sweden's best ever player -- to come out of international retirement was supposed to inspire the team to success.

But in the end it was age that proved his country's downfall, leading to an early exit from the tournament, and they will now have to rebuild the squad with younger players.

Coach Lars Lagerback might deny his 30-somethings suffered heavily in losses to sprightly Spain and Russia, saying: "It wasn't the physical element it was simply that the opponents played a better game than us".

But Sweden were uninspired for most of their three games, except for some short periods of crisp passing and attacking play, notably in the lead up to their two goals against an even poorer Greece side in their opening Group D match.

Even after going two goals up against holders who were lacking ideas, Sweden shut up shop and the final whistle could not come quickly enough for most of their tired team.

SLOW STARTERS

This was to set the pattern for their two remaining matches, a 2-1 defeat by Spain in injury time, after spending most of the second half clinging on for dear life, and a 2-0 loss to a vibrant Russia, who made their opponents look pedestrian.

"I'm disappointed with our failure to get our game going," Lagerback said. "We started well against Greece but that trend of being slow starters, maybe it's a mental factor."

But no matter what sweeping changes Lagerback might need to make in future, he must keep striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic in his plans if they are to progress to the World Cup finals in 2010.

Struggling with a swollen knee that limited his time on the pitch, the Inter Milan striker ended his Sweden goal drought of over 2-1/2 years with two well-executed goals he created.

But Lagerback will also have to learn from his over reliance on Ibrahimovic and find a new strike partner to replace Larsson, who will be very disappointed with his own performances and is likely to hang up his Swedish jersey for a third and final time.

"There's a new generation coming but I've always said it's about picking the best players regardless of their age," said Lagerback. When analysing Sweden's performance at Euro 2008, though, he will surely conclude that age did in fact matter.

(Editing by Ken Ferris)