The Sweden national football team is the national football team of Sweden and is controlled by the Swedish Football Association.

Sweden has traditionally been a strong team in international football, with eleven World Cup appearances and three medals in the Olympics. The Swedish team finished second in the 1958 World Cup, when it was the host team, being beaten by Brazil 5-2 in the final. Sweden has also finished third twice, in 1950 and 1994. In 1938, they finished fourth.

As the host of the 1992 European Championship, Sweden played in their first European Championship tournament. They played in the same group as Denmark, France, and England. Sweden was the only team that defeated the champions of the tournament, Denmark. Sweden finished in the semi-final against Germany, which is the best result for Sweden in the European Championship.

Sweden finished second in Group F behind Spain, thus qualifying for the finals. The campaign included an abandoned match away to Denmark, for which Sweden were awarded a 3-0 win by UEFA.And now they will struggle in Group D against Greece, Russia and Spain.First match will be 10 June 2008 at 20:45 against Greece, on EM Stadion Wals-Siezenheim - Salzburg stadium.

Sweden Team Squad

Goalkeepers: John Alvbåge,Andreas Isaksson,Rami Shaaban

Defenders: Mikael Antonsson, Matias Concha, Mikael Dorsin ,Erik Edman, Andreas Granqvist, Petter Hansson, Teddy Lucic, Daniel Majstorovic, Olof Mellberg, Fredrik Stenman, Karl Svensson,Max von Schlebrügge

Midfielders: Niclas Alexandersson,Daniel Andersson, Stefan Ishizaki, Andreas Johansson, Kim Källström, Sebastian Larsson, Tobias Linderoth, Fredrik Ljungberg,Mikael Nilsson, Anders Svensson, Christian Wilhelmsson

Forwards: Marcus Allbäck, Kennedy Bakircioglü, Fredrik Berglund,Johan Elmander ,Zlatan Ibrahimović, Rade Prica, Markus Rosenberg

Lars Lagerback - Manager Of Sweden National Football Team

Lars “Lasse” Lagerbäck [laːʂ 'lɑsɛ 'laːgɛrbɛk] (born 16 July 1948) is a football manager. After Euro 2004, he became the sole manager for the Sweden national football team. He first joined the national team’s coaching staff in 1997 as an assistant to Tommy Söderberg, and was promoted to joint coach in 2000. The pair led Sweden through the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2004; after the latter event, Söderberg left the senior national side to take over the coaching job of Sweden national under-21 football team.

Lagerbäck fell under severe scrutiny during the 2006 World Cup. He was very lax throughout the entire duration of the tournament, even when his side fell behind Germany 2-0 in the first 10 minutes of the game. He also made a baffling decision not to start talented midefielder Christian Wilhelmsson, who wasn’t substituted in until the 68th minute. Following the cup, Lagerbäck announced that he would only remain with the squad until Euro 2008, after which he will resign.

In a subsequent press conference, the 3rd April 2007, according to Dagens Nyheter´s Johan Esk, Lagerbäck contradicted earlier statements of him resigning after the 2008 European Cup, by saying that he wasn’t sure if this would be the last qualification to a big tournament he would be part of. However, news filtered through on January 4th that Lagerbäck had signed a new 2-year contract extension.

Although sometimes critisised for promoting less entertaining football, Lagerbäck stands out as arguably the most consistently successful manager of Sweden. He has by now steered his team through five straight qualifications for major international tournaments. This is a feat never before accomplished in the history of Swedish football.

Sources:

Sweden National Football Team [Wiki]

Lars Lagerback [Wiki]