Andersson: “Spain seemed a bit stressed at times”

Janne Andersson, Swedish coach, took stock after Sweden’s defeat against Spain that leaves Sweden pending the play-off to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar: “There is no other explanation than the defeats in Greece and Georgia. If we had won those two games we would have already qualified in Seville. But coming to Spain forced to win to qualify was not an easy undertaking, although we have done enough to achieve it.. We are almost at the same level as Spain, but almost … unfortunately we still have a bit to go to reach yours. At least the Seville match gives us encouragement and joy to continue fighting. The calendar is not in my hand, and playing in March may be far away. But we cannot change it. We already passed a play-off, against Italy, and we achieved the goal. I am optimistic if I take the Seville match against Spain as a reference. And I’m not that bad if I look at what we did in Georgia. I hope that in March we will be at the level that we have shown against Spain, because it will not be easy. “

The national coach of Sweden He opined that despite the 1-0 defeat against Spain this Sunday his team had been “very good” and that made his rival seem “sometimes a little stressed out”, so he wanted to transfer these feelings to the repechage of March to be in the Qatar World Cup.

“This summer was quite a difficult match at the Euro Cup, but this time we found a better way, in the same direction as in September when we beat them. It was a game with few chances to score and I think we were more or less evenly matched. We are sad to lose, but I think the players have done quite well. I think that Spain sometimes seemed a little stressed and if the 0-0 had gone on for more minutes they would have been more “, he pointed Andersson at a press conference.

The Swedish team coach stressed that the strategy for the match would have been “exactly the same” if it had been worth the draw. “Spain almost always maintains control of the ball and you also have to look at the performance of the players, and today the team in general has been very good “, commented.

“I think we didn’t make good use of all the chances we had and our defensive system was very good because our goalkeeper hardly had to make stops,” he added Andersson, which pointed out about the change of Forsberg, his most dangerous player, was because the midfielder “I hadn’t played 90 minutes in a long time” and thought they needed “more energy and fresh legs”.

In the same way, put Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the final stretch because he is a “stronger” player when his team has “more control of the ball”. “I wanted to let him play the last part of the game because against Spain you have to have a lot of energy because otherwise Spain finds your loopholes,” he warned.

Andersson stressed that the fact of not being in the hype of the seeds makes them “always play with a ‘top’ team” in the qualifying phases, but was hopeful about “a second chance in March.” “You have to take the positive feeling of this game to the playoffs,” he said.