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Sweden’s Under-21 national team lost to Italy in Pisa on Wednesday night in the European Under-21 Championship qualifiers. Before the match, Sweden had a chance to be ready for the European Championship matches in Slovenia and Hungary next year, as one of the five group runners-up, as Sweden would finish second in the qualifying group with the best results in the mutual encounters with Iceland.
However, that did not happen in the end, when Italy connected control of the match directly.
Italian midfielder Youssef Maleh connected, in the 27th minute, with a dream goal in half volley to 1-0 and thus put Sweden in a difficult situation.
“It’s an incomparably beautiful achievement,” C More expert Erik Edman said on the broadcast.
Sweden came into play at the same time without several important players, such as Viktor Gyökeres, due to crown drops and squad injuries, and failed to threaten much forward, which meant that the first half of the match ended with the Italian leadership.
In the second half of the match, Italy kept pressing and increased in the 48th minute to 2-0 through Giacomo Raspadori. Just two minutes later, Jesper Karlsson cut back, but in the end to no avail when Italy punctured the match. First, Raspadori scored two goals, in the 61st minute, to 3-1 and then, attacking partner Gianluca Scamacca, seven minutes later, increased to 4-1, which was also the final result of the match.
– It was quite a big win, but we tried at the end and of course we wanted to be in the European Championship, says Jesper Karlsson and continues:
– They scored two dream goals and then we made it 2-1, which gave us some hope, but then it was a bit sloppy and when 3-1 came it was gone.
Did you feel like you could do it after your goal?
– Yeah, we wanted to go for it and that was probably what opened up areas for them too, so we probably did it a bit. But it was also worth it. There was nothing but profit.
Therefore, Sweden will not be able to participate in the final of the European Championship next year, while Italy is already ready for the championship. Sweden will most likely have no match left to play in qualifying either, as UEFA recently stopped Sweden’s encounter with Armenia. However, UEFA has not disclosed what happens to the match, but Sweden is likely to get a 3-0 table win.
The Swedish U21 team has also had, like Armenia, crown cases in the team, at the same time that players have been forced to cancel due to injury problems before the Italy match. Karlsson believes it has affected the team.
– Yes, you must not lie about that. It was weird, but I still think we got it right. We’ve been in our bubble and people have been concerned about the corona virus, but new players have come in and we’ve always had the same goal of winning. There is nothing we can complain about. We did everything.
However, Karlsson still feels that it is sad to miss next year’s championship.
– I have participated in the U19 European Championship and it is one of the most important things in which I have participated. It was great and they were looking forward to this and hoping to get to the European Championship now, but it won’t be like that and it’s clear that it’s bitter, he concludes.
Startelvor:
Italy: Cerofolini – Vogliacco, Buongiorno, Cuomo – Zappa, Melegoni, Ricci, Maleh, Sala – Raspadori, Scamacca.
Sweden: Dahlberg – Beijmo, Vagic, Henriksson, Kralj – Bengtsson, Hellborg, Gigovic, Karlsson – Nygren, Almqvist.
