Euro 2008 - Last-gasp Villa shatters Sweden

Eurosport - Sun, 15 Jun 10:11:00 2008

A stoppage-time winner from David Villa gave Spain a dramatic 2-1 win over Sweden in their Euro 2008 Group D encounter in Innsbruck.

Euro 2008 Spain's David Villa celebrates his winning goal against Sweden - 0

Villa finished coolly in the 92nd minute after latching on to a long ball from Joan Capdevila, the Valencia man's fourth goal of the tournament.

It gave Spain three points that ensured a place in the quarter-finals after a sub-par team performance.

Fernando Torres opened the scoring on 15 minutes with a close-range effort before Zlatan Ibrahimovic equalised just after the half-hour with a low strike.

Spain never found the same amount of time and space they had in their 4-1 demolition of Russia on Tuesday, and looked set to be held until Villa's last-gasp heroics.

Sweden manager Lars Lagerback made two injury-enforced changes down the right flank. Fredrik Stoor came in for full-back Niclas Alexandersson, while Johan Elmander - nominally a striker - came into midfield for Christian Wilhelmsson.

Spain's Luis Aragones resisted calls to bring Cesc Fabregas into his starting XI, sticking with the quartet that tore Russia to shreds - David Silva, Marcos Senna, Xavi and Andres Iniesta.

The unchanged Spaniards did not appear to miss the Arsenal man, as they immediately seized the ball for long spells.

Spain's swashbuckling style is personified by the ultra-attacking right-back Sergio Ramos - improbably a central defender at club level.

On one occasion the Real Madrid man marauded down the wing, gave a pass and headed straight for the Swedish box.

Consequently he was horribly out of position when Sweden counter-attacked, but Fredrik Ljungberg's low shot was weak and straight at Iker Casillas.

Despite dominating possession and territory, Spain found Sweden tough break down and did not have a meaningful chance until the 15th minute when Torres found the net from a well-worked corner.

The ball was played short to Capdevila who drove a pacy, diagonal left-foot cross that Torres diverted past the wrong-footed Andreas Isaksson and in off the left-hand post.

Within 60 seconds Sweden should have been level after Spain switched off at the back. Henrik Larsson played a neat ball for the onrushing Elmander, who sliced his shot into the side netting with the goal gaping.

Spain were presented with an injury problem when Carles Puyol went off during the first half, to be replaced by Valencia's Raul Albiol. A major blow if the Barcelona skipper does not recover.

Ibrahimovic lit up a pedestrian Swedish display with a stunning goal against Greece and did a similar job in Innsbruck, albeit in less spectacular style.

His chance appeared to have passed when he failed to unleash a first-time shot from Stoor's diagonal cross from the right.

But, with his back to goal, he turned Ramos and fired a low shot that Casillas got a hand to but could not keep out.

His job seemingly done, Ibrahimovic was withdrawn at the break with Sweden keen not to aggravate the Internazionale striker's troublesome knee.

Spain should have had a penalty in first-half stoppage time when Elmander barged Silva in the box but referee Pieter Vink saw no infringement.

Although they were entitled to feel hard-done-by, the men in red were lucky to escape sanction after surrounding the official at the end of the half.

If any player could be described as "typically Spanish" it is Silva. The Valencia man boasts superb skill and technique, but lacks killer instinct.

On 49 minutes Villa presented him with a good shooting opportunity but Silva inexplicably opted to play a return pass.

Later Villa supplied him again, and he rolled a weak shot that gave Isaksson a chance to save he should never have had. Torres saw his follow-up shot blocked.

Aragones brought on Fabregas and Santi Cazorla before the hour mark, with Xavi and Iniesta making way, but they could do little to enliven the latter part of the game.

With the game seemingly petering out to a draw, Capdevila launched a long ball downfield that Sweden inexplicably failed to deal with.

Villa latched on to the ball, nicked it through the legs of Petter Hansson and shot low into the right corner of the net to send Spain into raptures.

Alex Chick / Eurosport

Comment 17 - 36 of 36

Sort comments by: Most recent | Most rated

  1. although spain won they seem to have some problems in deffence,sweden were also qualify along with spain.
    power rankings
    1_netherlands(by far the best team)
    2_portugal
    3_spain(spain and portugal are alike but the spanish deffence has some deffence)
    4_croatia
    5_sweden,germany
    6_italy,france,romania,ru ssia
    7_czech,turkey

    7_
    6_

    From ahmed.amrothman, on Sun 15 Jun 2:25PM

  2. Fernando Torres gentlement of the soccer in the world.

    From stephencz, on Sun 15 Jun 9:56AM

  3. Fernando Torres gentlement of the soccer in the world.

    From stephencz, on Sun 15 Jun 9:55AM

  4. HELLO AAN AL SINAASAPPEL. ZIJ ZIJN ITALIAANS, EERST EN VOORAL ZOU IK AAN U MET U WILLEN COMPLIMENTEREN, HEBT U EEN GOEDE HAND, INDERDAAD COMPLIMENTEN… MAAR VERGETEN NIET DAT ITALIË HEEFT WONNEN 4 DEGENEN WERELDWIJD IN DE ZAK EN IS TWEE KEER TWEEDE, DE KAMPIOEN VAN DE ONDEUGD VAN DE WERELD AANGEKOMEN. Het is niet VAN ALLE LANDEN… NOCHTANS MOEST HET NIET OM U VERACHTEN, MAAR IN ORDE MAAKT HET NOTARESE U DE WGO HEBT VERGETEN U WIJ… BENT IK HOOP DAT HET SPEL U EERLIJK, WORDT GESPROKEN GOED OVER U, SPEELDE WORDT GESPROKEN DIE U EERLIJK… ZULT SPELEN HET ZOU ANDERS EEN ZONDE ZIJN, ZOU HET SPEL FRANKRIJK VAN ITALIË ÉÉN ENKEL GEEST NIET… HEBBEN U GROET EN AUGURIES VOOR UW SINAASAPPEL, NOG COMPLIMENT EN GOEDE FORTUNA

    From forza_azzurri_2008, on Sun 15 Jun 9:18AM

  5. HELLO AAN AL SINAASAPPEL. ZIJ ZIJN ITALIAANS, EERST EN VOORAL ZOU IK AAN U MET U WILLEN COMPLIMENTEREN, HEBT U EEN GOEDE HAND, INDERDAAD COMPLIMENTEN… MAAR VERGETEN NIET DAT ITALIË HEEFT WONNEN 4 DEGENEN WERELDWIJD IN DE ZAK EN IS TWEE KEER TWEEDE, DE KAMPIOEN VAN DE ONDEUGD VAN DE WERELD AANGEKOMEN. Het is niet VAN ALLE LANDEN… NOCHTANS MOEST HET NIET OM U VERACHTEN, MAAR IN ORDE MAAKT HET NOTARESE U DE WGO HEBT VERGETEN U WIJ… BENT IK HOOP DAT HET SPEL U EERLIJK, WORDT GESPROKEN GOED OVER U, SPEELDE WORDT GESPROKEN DIE U EERLIJK… ZULT SPELEN HET ZOU ANDERS EEN ZONDE ZIJN, ZOU HET SPEL FRANKRIJK VAN ITALIË ÉÉN ENKEL GEEST NIET… HEBBEN U GROET EN AUGURIES VOOR UW SINAASAPPEL, NOG COMPLIMENT EN GOEDE FORTUNA

    From forza_azzurri_2008, on Sun 15 Jun 9:13AM

  6. Torres and Villa

    From Khairil@92, on Sun 15 Jun 8:56AM

  7. Come on you Espana !!!! I am an Englishman with a house in Spain so it is my adopted country, will be there next week to cheer the boys on to the final !!!!

    From jacqueline270, on Sun 15 Jun 7:31AM

  8. good job 4 my boy (el nino)your r the greatest foward in the world...go torres ...go the kid...

    From RiAnEzS, on Sun 15 Jun 6:09AM

  9. david silva is awsome and will be wickedly great in the near future. he's just a kiddo right now.

    From mteaptea, on Sun 15 Jun 6:00AM

  10. well i did not see the game but going by what i have seen from el nino i am not surprised i hope spain and netherlands will not play in the quaterfinals bcos i want them to meet layta twill be more interesting,villa is a fantastic playa ,all the best to the spaniards

    From sola t, on Sun 15 Jun 4:37AM

  11. adripadmen, spain wiil last for as long they avoid the germany. by the way
    good pleyers tores and villa good luck to theam and spain,germany.

    From spoll71, on Sun 15 Jun 3:12AM

  12. TO grech_nicholas
    you are very stupid and dont know anything about sports

    From ahmed.amrothman, on Sun 15 Jun 1:56AM

  13. Did Tomas Brolin played last night for Sweden??

    From ronwoon, on Sun 15 Jun 12:34AM

  14. Go SPANISH HARLEM boys go!!

    From ronwoon, on Sun 15 Jun 12:30AM

  15. Im from Norway! And Spain is the best team in this tournament;) !! Go spain!!

    From rbatayev, on Sun 15 Jun 12:09AM

  16. El Niño (The Kid) Torres as he is called in Spain, Has really matured from Atletico Madrid to Liverpool.... and ofcourse the national team where he is in good company .......... Viva España Viva torres Viva villa... Viva España

    From sunnyspain01 s, on Sat 14 Jun 11:33PM

  17. Is it me, or is Spain making an extra effort to give Torres the ball? It seemed they spent alot of time passing instead of driving for the goal. Yes it's important to pass and set up plays etc. but it seemed like there were chances blown because they were trying to hard to get it to Torres. Sweden did a good job of defending by sheer man power. (more players between Spain and the goal)(and height) It seemed to me a match that could have gone either way. I think in the end Spain slightly dominated on the offensive, and therefor deserved the win. David Villa is definately a man to keep an eye on for the future. Euro 2008 so far, all round has been an interesting and exciting show. I can't wait for the next match!

    From shifferjm, on Sat 14 Jun 11:31PM

  18. I can't explain how proud I am of El Guaje, aka David Villa. Hopefully Spain will last long enough for him to become the best player of the tournament!

    From adripadme, on Sat 14 Jun 11:01PM

  19. If you think Villa and Torres are good, wait till you get to watch Güiza (24 goals with Mallorca in the Spanish League Tournament this season) against the Greeks. Spain should play with their reserve team because they're already classified at the top of the group.

    From mangstadt, on Sat 14 Jun 10:02PM

  20. Torres! Espana! Viva! Liverpool! You'll never walk alone! El Torro! Torro!

    From Mr. SUGGESTION, on Sat 14 Jun 9:49PM
Sort comments by: Most recent | Most rated

Not already a Yahoo! user ? to get a free Yahoo! Account