No, Sweden hardly offered any sound and jubilant performance in Wellington.
It was a victory with the odd goal (2–1) in the opener against South Africa. Afterwards, the national team captain Peter Gerhardsson was dissatisfied with the team’s effort.
— All matches have a life of their own. Today, I think, just like many of the players, that we make a little too many tactical and technical mistakes, he says.
Gerhardsson believes that tense nerves may be an explanation for the performance leaving more to be desired.
— It may be due to a certain tension. It was in April last year that we got ready for that championship and it has been a long wait. Many of these mistakes on enough of a tension in the players.
What was positive according to Gerhardsson? The result.
— We have won a match despite quite big problems owning it. And we have shown that we can turn games around, which we can benefit from.
On Saturday, a new challenge awaits against Italy. Then the national team captain wants to see an improvement.
— It was nice to win, there were parts of the game that were okay. We will encounter other problems against Italy that we have to fix during the match. Now we are in the tournament and our expectations will be higher for the next match.
Sweden-Italy kicks off at 09:30, Swedish time.