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Denmark closed Sweden´s door to South Africa

Sports | 2009-10-11 | 1 comment
Lars Lagerbäck. Photo: svenskfotboll.se

Denmark won against Sweden yesterday with 1-0 and this means that Denmark has definitely qualified to the football world cup 2010 and that Sweden most likely has not. If Sweden does not qualify, the coach Lars Lagerbäck will step down.

The match between Denmark and Sweden was played in Parken, Copenhagen. Football between Denmark and Sweden are usually full of prestige, but this match was extra important as a determining qulification game for the football world cup 2010 in South Africa.

For Sweden this was the last chance to qualify to the world cup 2010 by own means.

Portugal is the main rival and they met Hungary at home yesterday. Before yesterday matches, Denmark had 18 points, Sweden 15 and Portugal 13.

The match between Sweden and Denmark was played first. It was through the whole first half a very even match. Perhaps with a slight dominance of the Danes who managed to outflank the Swedish team several times with its quick-gooted Dennis Rommedehl. But the first half ended 0-0.

The Swedes came back in the second half with a more dense and intense game. Two times, Sweden got the ball in the net. Both goals however were not legimate. The first because of a very tight offside of Henrik Larsson and the second because the ball was deemed to be outside the line before Sebastian Larsson put it in the goal with a header.

But it was finally Denmark that scored after a long shot by Jakob Poulsen. The Swedish goal-keeper Andreas Isaksson could not see the ball until it was too late. Sweden tried hard in the last minutes but the energy turned into frustration when the Danes skillfully kept posession of the ball in the very last minutes. The audience at the Arena ´Parken´ sang joyfully in the last minutes ´the victory is ours´ and ´we will go to South Africa´.

After the match, it was clear that Sweden´s only hope to participate in the world cup was that Hungary would steal at least one point against Portugal. But as expected this was too much asked of the Hungarian team who had six players injured. Portugal won easily with 3-0.

There is only one round left to play in the qualification league and the standing can be seen below. Portugal´s last match is against Malta and they must loose points if Sweden is to have at least the slightest chance to qualify.

Sweden´s last match is against Albania. This will most likely be the last match for Lars Lagerbäck as the Swedish coach. At a press conference today, Lagerbäck informed the press that he will leave his post if Sweden does not qualify to the World Cup, which is probably the case.

The current standing (11th October):

Denmark 21 points
Portugal 16 points
Sweden 15 points
Hungary 13 points
Albania 7 points
Malta 1 points

 


 

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Readers' comments

2009-10-12 14:49 lancelot wrote:
Actually Denmark played better...but Sweden deserved a goal. Two times, they scored but it was deemed out by the referee.


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