Five-star Sweden fall short
Thursday, April 1, 2010
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Malta 0-5 Sweden
Sweden missed out on a place in the finals despite completing their campaign with a resounding victory to finish second in Group 7.
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Sweden missed out on a place in the UEFA European Under-17 Championship finals despite completing their elite round Group 7 campaign with a resounding 5-0 win over Malta to finish second in the section.
After losing their opening game 4-0 against eventual group winners England, Tomas Turesson's side bounced back with a pair of wins, 2-0 against Slovakia then Thursday's rout of Malta, but it was not enough to claim the best runners-up spot and a place in the finals.
Sweden went ahead on 24 minutes when Jonathan Azulay headed in Lucas Ohlander's free-kick before Anton Sandberg Magnusson struck on 31 and 51 minutes to put the game out of Malta's reach.
Erik Tönros completed the rout with a pair of goals on 68 and 76 minutes though Sweden still came up short. "England were by far the superior team in this mini-tournament and they are the worthy winners," Sweden coach Turesson said.
