Barrling upbeat amid Germany joy and relief
Thursday, August 22, 2013
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Germany assistant boss Bettina Wiegmann was relieved to finally crack the code of a miserly Sweden defence that was the aspect of his side's display that most pleased Calle Barrling.
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Calle Barrling, Sweden coach
Our performance was excellent, defensively at least. Germany had the ball a lot but didn't create that many chances – I think they scored from their third chance. For 60 minutes we were in the game. But it is also about creating our own opportunities and our passing was terrible for some reason. It wasn't that good against Finland either. So while our defensive performance was really good, in attack our passing was not our usual style. We can do much better. Usually we are an attacking side, but against Germany you must defend well and we did.
Had we managed to last another 15 minutes without conceding, maybe they would have been satisfied with a draw as well. But their first goal was excellent. Next time, if we want to go to the semi-finals, our attacking must be better. However, I think when we sit down and talk about the game, we will be positive. You have to have a good team spirit to fight like we did and it is always tough to play Germany.
Initially we were not that satisified with only a point from Finland but it was a point and one that could prove very important in the end. We have had injured players in the squad and there was a long [mid-season] break because of the Women's EURO, so [with improved fitness] I think the third game will be great. And if we have a chance to play a fourth we will take that chance. We are really positive. It could also be important not to have let Germany score too many goals. So tonight I think we will look forward to Norway.
Bettina Wiegmann, Germany assistant coach
Well, we did have quite a hard time against what was a defensive Swedish team. We did not play that well because they dropped really deep and destroyed our game. But I think we tried everything and tried to play our way through and in the end we scored two goals and deservedly won.
Compared with the Norway game [a 5-0 Germany victory], I think we had much more movement in our game on Monday, we swapped positions much more and also Norway did not drop as deep as Sweden and were not as compact in the centre. So we had bigger gaps to play through there, we were much better in that game and had more movement – we could play more football, start a run and let our combinations work for us. Today, after winning the ball, we were a bit slow to attack. We took too long to bring the ball into play and did not have enough pace about us.
Of course, one way of cracking a tight defence is to get wide and cross the ball, and in the end that worked for us in the second half. But as they say, it doesn't matter how you score, the main thing is that you score. We are happy to have the possibility not only to score from combinations but also to have some joy with crosses. We have been watching our next opponents Finland and their 1-1 draw with Sweden was not undeserved. It will be another difficult game against them, which we will enter fully focused. And of course it is our aim to be successful in that game as well.