Just two days after their opening defeat against Ukraine in Kiev and Sweden’s Euro 2012 campaign is on the verge of falling apart.
The sun may have been shining at the Swedes’ rural training retreat 25km outside the Ukraine capital but inside the locker room the ramifications of being put to the sword by Andriy Shevchenko on Monday night were still being felt.
At the heart of it all, as usual, was captain, talisman and self-appointed focal point Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who left the Olympic Stadium after Sweden’s 2-1 defeat raging about what he believed to be the unprofessionalism shown by his team-mates.
Tormented genius: Zlatan Ibrahimovic
By all accounts, it was not Sweden’s performance that angered the Milan striker so much but the fact that he observed some players waving to their wives and girlfriends in the stands when they should have been going through a warm down.
‘Ibra feels the pain very much when Sweden don’t do well and it was the same on Monday night,’ a Swedish source said last night.
‘After the game he thought the players should have had their eyes on the next game against England, rather than saluting their partners. This is Ibra, though. He is rarely completely happy.’
The main target of Ibrahimovic’s ire is thought to have been centre forward Markus Rosenberg, picked on Monday ahead of his favoured strike partner Johan Elmander.
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Rank | Team | W/D/L | Pts |
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Cities & Stadiums
The Top 3 Teams of Previous Tournaments
Year | Winners | Runner-up | Third place |
---|---|---|---|
2008 | Spain | Germany | Russia / Turkey |
2004 | Greece | Portugal | Netherlands / Czech Republic |
2000 | France | Italy | Netherlands / Portugal |
1996 | Germany | Czech Republic | France / England |
1992 | Denmark | Germany | Netherlands / Sweden |
1988 | Netherlands | Soviet Union | Italy / West Germany |
1984 | France | Spain | Denmark / Portugal |
1980 | West Germany | Belgium | Czechoslovakia |
1976 | Czechoslovakia | West Germany | Netherlands |
1972 | West Germany | Soviet Union | Belgium |
1968 | Italy | Yugoslavia | England |
1964 | Spain | Soviet Union | Hungary |
1960 | Soviet Union | Yugoslavia | Czechoslovakia |