Sweden Beat Portugal in U21 Euros with Solid Tactics and Collective Brilliance

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: June 30, 2015

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Sometimes in football the best team wins the game. Not the best strikers, goalscorers, defenders or midfielders. Not even the top stars in the sport. Sometimes all it comes down to is a good manager who can implement the best tactics on the pitch. 

This is what happened on Tuesday night when Portugal and Sweden stepped onto the pitch at the Eden Arena in Prague to face off for the title of U21 European Champions. After 120 minutes of wrestling, jostling and a missed penalty from William Carvalho, Hakan Ericson's side went on to claim the title as their own for the first time in Swedish history. 

Remarks of Sweden's underdog status prior to the match may have seemed unfair on the now-champions, but in truth they went into a game that they had absolutely no right to win. Where Ericson's side had come into this competition with little hope of leaving their group, Portugal had arrived with a whole entourage of adoring fans and journalists touting them as the side to define this very competition.



This obviously isn't how the game panned out on Tuesday. Sweden started the match with a tight defence, proving hard to break down, and then slowly but surely the Scandinavians began to exert their dominance on the match.

Portugal, like Denmark and Italy before them, threw everything they had at the stubborn wall of yellow and blue, but in the end it was no good. Sweden's collective performance and the astute tactics of their coach had once again proven to have no match at this summer tournament of showcased individual brilliance. 


Although it may not have seemed as aesthetically pleasing to neutral fans as perhaps the daring runs and passes of Portugal, Sweden's organisation and astounding ability to move as one unit will undoubtedly have had true football purists on the edge of their seats. 

This wasn't a game of football that had Swedish winkers j...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football

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