Swedes seek to upset England again

Sweden have yet to lose a competitive fixture against England but Roy Hodgson's men can take heart from a recent friendly success as they look to change that statistic in the countries' UEFA EURO 2012 Group D meeting.

• Despite Joleon Lescott's first international goal to give England a 30th-minute lead, Roy Hodgson's team had to settle for a 1-1 draw in their first fixture against France in Donetsk. Sweden – who play all three group games in Kyiv – also took the lead, Zlatan Ibrahimović putting them in front in the 52nd minute against co-hosts Ukraine, but two Andriy Shevchenko goals consigned them to defeat at the Olympic Stadium.

Head-to-head record
• Sweden's 21 previous official matches against England have ended W6 D9 L6; they are unbeaten in their three UEFA European Championship meetings which have produced two Swedish wins and a draw.

• Sweden have never lost a competitive game against England, with their seven previous encounters ending W2 D5 L0; the teams' last three competitive match-ups all produced draws.

• The sides first met in a friendly in Stockholm on 21 May 1923 which England won 4-2. That was the first of three straight English victories before Sweden's first success, a 3-1 win on 13 May 1949.

• When England beat Sweden 1-0 in a friendly on 15 November 2011, it was their first victory in 43 years against the Scandinavians, following a run of eight draws and four defeats since a 3-1 Wembley success on 22 May 1968.

• Sweden have won one of the nations' three meetings at major final tournaments, a 2-1 triumph at EURO '92 which was followed by two draws (1-1 at the 2002 World Cup and 2-2 at the 2006 finals).

Selected previous meetings
15 November 2011: England 1-0 Sweden (Barry 22) – Wembley, London, friendly
England: Hart (Carson 46), Walker, Cahill, Terry, Baines, Rodwell (Milner 58), Jones, Barry, Walcott (Sturridge 58), Zamora (Bent 70), Downing.
Sweden: Isaksson, Lustig (Wilhelmsson 55), Mellberg (J Olsson 46), Majstorovic, M Olsson, Wernbloom, Källström (A Svensson 70), S Larsson, Elmander, R Elm (Bajrami 87), Ibrahimović (Toivonen 46).

• Daniel Majstorovic deflected Gareth Barry's effort past his goalkeeper for what was England's 2,000th international goal. As mentioned above, it was England's first win against Sweden in 12 attempts since 1968.

20 June 2006: Sweden 2-2 England (Allbäck 51, H Larsson 90; J Cole 34, Gerrard 85) – Rhein-Energie Stadium, Cologne, FIFA World Cup group stage
Sweden: Isaksson, Lučić, Mellberg, Edman, Alexandersson, Linderoth (D Andersson 90+1), Källström, Ljungberg, M Jonson (Wilhelmsson 54), H Larsson, Allbäck (Elmander 75).
England: Robinson, Carragher, Terry, Ferdinand (Campbell 56), A Cole, Beckham, Lampard, Hargreaves, J Cole, Rooney (Gerrard 69), Owen (Crouch 4).

• In their final group game at the 2006 World Cup, a last-gasp Henrik Larsson strike earned Lars Lagerbäck's men a draw against an England side led by another Swede, Sven-Göran Eriksson. England finished top of the group with Sweden second. Marcus Allbäck, who scored Sweden's first goal, is now assistant coach of the national team. He played in England for Aston Villa FC from 2002 to 2004.

17 June 1992: Sweden 2-1 England (Jan Eriksson 51, Brolin 82; Platt 4), Råsunda Stadium, Stockholm, UEFA European Championship group stage
Sweden: Ravelli, R Nilsson, P Andersson, Björklund, J Eriksson, Ingesson, Schwarz, Thern, Limpar (Ekström 45), Brolin, Dahlin.
England: Woods, Batty, Keown, Walker, Pearce, Sinton (Merson 76), Palmer, Webb, Daley, Platt, Lineker (A Smith 62).

• Tommy Svensson's hosts eliminated Graham Taylor's England from the 1992 finals with this victory, Tomas Brolin hitting the winner with eight minutes to go.

Form guide
• Sweden last appeared at a major final tournament at UEFA EURO 2008. They exited at the group stage after defeats by Russia and eventual winners Spain negated their opening 2-0 victory against Greece.

• England passed through qualifying unbeaten – five wins and three draws – and the 1-1 draw against France means they have not lost a competitive game since a 4-1 defeat by Germany in the 2010 World Cup round of 16; their worst ever result at a final tournament.

Team ties
• Many of the Sweden squad have played football for English clubs:
Johan Elmander (Bolton Wanderers FC 2008-11)
Andreas Granqvist (Wigan Athletic FC 2007-08)
Tobias Hysén (Sunderland AFC 2006-07)
Andreas Isaksson (Manchester City FC 2006-08)
Sebastian Larsson (Arsenal FC 2004-06, Birmingham City FC 2006-11, Sunderland AFC 2011-)
Olof Mellberg (Aston Villa FC 2001-08)
Jonas Olsson (West Bromwich Albion FC 2008-)
Martin Olsson (Blackburn Rovers FC 2006-)
Anders Svensson (Southampton FC 2001-05)
Christian Wilhelmsson (Bolton Wanderers FC 2007-08)

• Isaksson played alongside England's Joe Hart at Manchester City.

• Sebastian Larsson and Theo Walcott were briefly together at Arsenal in 2005/06.

• Martin Olsson and England defender Phil Jones were Blackburn team-mates from 2008 to 2011.

• Ibrahimović featured in the FC Barcelona side that won 2-1 against FC Dynamo Kyiv at the Valeriy Lobanovskiy Stadium in the 2009/10 UEFA Champions League group stage.

• Ibrahimović also scored twice for Barcelona in a 2-2 draw at Arsenal in that same season's quarter-finals; Walcott lined up for the Gunners in that game.

• Ibrahimović scored AC Milan's final goal from the penalty spot in a 4-0 home win against Arsenal in the 2011/12 UEFA Champions League round of 16 first leg; Walcott and substitute Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain featured for the visitors. All three also played in the return in north London, which Arsenal won 3-0.

Competition format
• If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings:
a) Higher number of points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question;
b) Superior goal difference resulting from the matches played between the teams in question;
c) Higher number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question;
d) If, after having applied criteria a) to c), two teams still have an equal ranking, criteria a) to c) are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the two teams in question to determine the final rankings of the two teams. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria e) to i) apply in the order given;
e) superior goal difference in all group matches;
f) higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
g) position in the UEFA national team coefficient ranking system (see annex I, paragraph 1.2.2);
h) fair play conduct of the teams (final tournament);
i) drawing of lots.

• The Group D coefficients are as follows:
England 33.563
Sweden 31.675
France 30.508
Ukraine 28.029

• If two teams which have the same number of points, the same number of goals scored and conceded play their last group match against each other and are still equal at the end of that match, the ranking of the two teams in question is determined by kicks from the penalty mark provided no other teams within the group have the same number of points on completion of all group matches. Should more than two teams have the same number of points, the criteria listed under paragraph 8.07 apply.