Date: June 17, 2016
Result: Italy 1 Sweden 0
Scorers:
Italy: Eder 88
Sweden: none
Venue: Stadium de Toulouse, Toulouse
Match overview:
Brazilian-born striker Eder’s late strike broke the deadlock in Toulouse as Italy qualified for the knockout stage at the expense of Sweden. Neither team had looked like scoring up until Eder’s goal in the 88th minute. Sweden failed to hit the target in the entire while the closest Italy had come was Marco Parolo’s header against the crossbar.
Key moment:
Eder’s goal in the 88th-minute was a bolt from the blue. From a throw-in, Eder chested the ball down and powered his way past three Swedish defenders before firing a shot past Isaksson.
Man of the match:
Like his strike partner Graziano Pelle, Eder had done little to threaten Sweden’s goal at any point during the match. But his late goal, out of nowhere, proved decisive.
Matter of fact:
Italy have won their first two matches at a major tournament for the first time sine Euro 2000, when they reached the Final.
Talking point:
Late goals are becoming a habit for the top teams at this tournament. After French winners against both Romania and Albania, Pique’s late header for Spain to defeat Czech Rep, England’s late show against Wales, Italy left it late to find a way through the Swedish defence.
Sweden, perhaps conscious of how Italy had beaten Belgium in their opening game, sat very deep and denied the Italians any real goalscoring chances. The closest Italy came was a header against the crossbar from Marco Parolo – until Eder picked the ball up in the 88th minute and ran at the Swedish defence.
Stats:
Goal attempts
Italy: 8
Sweden: 4
Attempts on target
Italy: 3
Sweden: 0
Corners
Italy: 7
Sweden: 4
Line-ups:
Italy
01 Gianluigi Buffon
03 Giorgio Chiellini
06 Antonio Candreva
08 Alessandro Florenzi (14 Stefano Sturaro 84)
09 Graziano Pelle (07 Simone Zaza 60)
15 Andrea Barzagli
16 Daniele De Rossi (Thiago Motta 74)
17 Eder
18 Marco Parolo
19 Leonardo Bonucci
23 Emanuele Giaccherini
Starting line-up: 3-5-2
Buffon – Barzagli, Bonucci, Chiellini – Florenzi, Parolo, De Rossi, Giaccherini, Candreva – Pelle, Eder
Sweden
01 Andreas Isaksson
03 Erik Johansson
04 Andreas Granqvist
05 Martin Olsson
06 Emil Forsberg (21 Jimmy Durmaz 79)
07 Sebastian Larsson
08 Albin Ekdal (18 Oscar Lewicki 79)
09 Kim Kallstrom
10 Zlatan Ibrahimovic
14 Victor Lindelof
20 John Guidetti (09 Marcus Berg 85)
Starting line-up: 4-4-2
Isaksson – Olsson, Johansson, Granqvist, Lindelof – Larsson, Ekdal, Kallstrom, Forsberg – Ibrahimovic, Guidetti
Yellow cards:
Italy: De Rossi 69, Buffon 90
Sweden: Olsson 90
Referee: Viktor Kassai (Hun)
Attendance: 29,600
