Swedish boss says his ‘humble’ team have ‘ambition to be the best in every moment’

Macdara Ferris reports from the Gamla Ullevi in Gothenburg

When a team like Sweden wins 15-0 (like they did last week in Georgia) and launches a jersey where it outlines ‘how to stop Sweden’, it could be viewed as arrogant. 

That arrogance could also be seen as justified as Sweden are the world number two and back-to-back Olympic silver medallists, have won six from six so far in their 2023 World Cup campaign and go into this summer’s European Championship as favourites.

A point against the Republic of Ireland in Gothenburg on Tuesday evening will secure qualification for next year’s tournament in Australia and New Zealand.

Swedish boss Peter Gerhardsson brushed off the Adidas marketing campaign around their new jersey and insisted his Swedish side are a humble group.

"It is always marketing things and things like that - I think everybody knows things and if they don't know it, buy the shirt and you can see it,” said Gerhardsson speaking at Monday’s press conference in Gothenburg’s Gamla Ullevi.

The Adidas site isn’t telling opponents anything that they don’t know according to the Swedish boss. 

“Every country have well scouted teams and players” but should Vera Pauw have a look she will be familiar with the fact that ‘Sweden is one of the fastest playing teams in the world and also one of the very best at counter-attacking. Sweden turn 52% of counter-attacks into shots.’

That attacking flair means you have to go back over two years since Sweden last lost a match – although they did lose the Olympic final in Tokyo but only on penalties.

"I know they are competing with each other for places in the squad for the European Championship this summer, but they are humble to each other, they help each other, they coach each other and that is very important for me as a coach.

"They are a very good group and they are very good human beings. It is pretty easy to be a coach for them because they have this ambition. They have ambition to be the best in every moment and they have respect for each other. “These players I think they like to win, they like to be favourites.”

Sweden were 11-0 up at half time last week away to Georgia but there was no sense that they throttled back in the second half even if they ‘only’ added another four.

“When it’s like this competition, I have a history of it myself, when I have lost after 26 games on goal difference to get promotion because we have scored less goals. So for me, it’s always ‘Can we score another goal?’ Because you don’t know what it’s going to be like in the end. It’s about scoring and not conceding.

"So every goal is important and that is something that I’ve tried to encourage and they have accepted it.”

extratime.com asked Real Madrid’s Kosovare Asllani what did they gain from the massive win over Georgia? “Personally, I didn’t think it was fun to win with those numbers. But we are there to win and get the three points. 

“Playing smaller-ranked teams is maybe not the best for us but it is important for in terms of our relationships with each other because we don’t get a lot of games together during the season.

“For our sake, it’s getting minutes together and a good game to have ahead of our next important game against Ireland.”

Whether Georgia gained much from that match, that seems a mute point but Asllani – who scored twice in last week’s game – claimed “it’s an inspiration for Georgia to play a top-ranked team and for the next generation in their country.”

We are at the Gamla Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg today ahead of tomorrow's 2023 World Cup qualifier between Sweden and the Republic of Ireland. We will hear from both camps during the day. Sweden were out on the pitch training this morning. pic.twitter.com/LCOajVv9Tb

— Extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) April 11, 2022