Sweden think only of victory

By Paul Saffer in Preston

Sweden's players are confident that they can defeat hosts England to reach the UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2005™ semi-finals - instilled by the fear of coach Marika Domanski-Lyfors.

'Huge temper'
Midfield player Frida Östberg told uefa.com: "She has a huge temper, when she gets mad, she tells you. I'm the same. She gives us the belief that we can win the tournament."

Win needed
Along with her colleagues Maria Karlsson and Lotta Schelin at Sweden's relaxed training camp, Östberg believes the 2001 runners-up will pick up the three points they need in Blackburn later today, having drawn their first two Group A games against Denmark and Finland, leaving them in third.

Östberg confident
"We are going for medals," Östberg said. "England are a really good team, they will have 20,000 behind them tomorrow, but I think we are going to win." The chance of playing in front of a big crowd also excited her fellow midfielder, Karlsson.

Big crowd
"There will be a lot of people watching the game, which will be a lot of fun," she said. "I haven't played in front of that many people, I don't think I will start but I'm giving 100 per cent and doing my best so if I am given the chance, I will give my best."

Strong belief
She added: "We believe we can do this, absolutely. Hopefully we will do better with a little bit of pressure, hopefully we can do our best. They have a lot of good players and we have to watch out for everyone."

Aiming high
The forward-running Schelin has started both games so far. And the 21-year-old shares her team-mates' bullishness. "We're pretty confident, we have to be," she said. "We were favourites in the group and now we have landed somewhere lower, but we haven't lost yet. We said before that we were going to win the group, so of course we are a little disappointed. But we have a good position, we can still move forward and can still win the group and have every chance of doing well."

Motivational technique
As for the coach, Schelin revealed: "She is very involved in the game during the match and she gets very frustrated if things don't go right. But she does it in a good way, which pushes us on."

Previous experience
Östberg, 27, was in the Swedish squad that reached the final of both the 2001 UEFA European Women's Championship and 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup, having each time won their last group game to progress. Having played in the opener against Denmark but not against Finland, she may play some part today and believes her team-mates will be at their best.

'Something to prove'
"The side is picked on what Marika feels is needed," she said. "It's OK, we're still in the tournament and we can still affect the outcome. Of course we have something to prove, at least to ourselves. We want to be in the final, so we have to win. Of course we want to be more effective and score more goals."

Team spirit
Karlsson, 22 last month, concurs with that opinion. "The team spirit is good, she said. “We've been playing well, but we can always do better. When we played against Finland we had the pressure, it was only the goal that was missing. Every single player is very good. So it's just fun to be here, playing and training."