Toivonen stirred by Swedish spirit

The frustration and disappointment will endure for some time yet, but Sweden forward Ola Toivonen believes his side can be proud of their efforts after clawing their way back from three goals down before ultimately falling short on penalties in their UEFA European Under-21 Championship semi-final with England on Friday.

'Fantastic team'
The host nation were determined to give their enthusiastic supporters the result they wanted but rapidly found themselves on the back foot after Martin Cranie struck in the opening minute. A Nedum Onuoha effort and a Mattias Bjärsmyr own goal then looked to have made the game safe for Stuart Pearce's side in the first half, yet Marcus Berg kick-started a stunning comeback on 68 minutes and restored parity with nine minutes remaining, after Toivonen himself had contributed with a free-kick. "Obviously we feel very low right now, but we should be proud of ourselves," said Toivonen. "I still think that we proved we are a fantastic team and that we're equal to any of the teams at the absolute top."

Hamstring injury
Penalties eventually proved Sweden's undoing, with Berg and Guillermo Molins failing to convert, and Toivonen regretted he was unable to have his say from the spot. "I was on the short list as one of the penalty takers but I had to say no," he explained. "After scoring from my free-kick, I felt pains in my hamstring. I didn't want to risk getting a real injury at the moment I took my shot and the ball just rolling along the ground." The 22-year-old was barely able to finish the match, in fact, and he revealed he was not the only one suffering after Sweden's efforts. "I really needed to be substituted, but they were so quick with the changes on the bench that I didn't have time to tell the coaches. In the end, neither me nor Robin Söder could run."

Half-time rally
Looking back at his team's earlier troubles, Toivonen lamented an inability to defend from set-pieces. "In the first half, they got three corners and scored three goals," he said. "That problem with set-pieces has been with us this whole tournament. We conceded five goals like that and, of course, that's not good enough." A candid half-time exchange quickly turned the match around, however. "We really needed the half-time break and we had time to talk things through one more time. We said that we wouldn't get many chances in life to play in a semi-final. We told each other that we had to believe in what we were doing and to go out there and give it our best. The 3-1 goal really fired us up. We knew then that we could score two more."