Sweden coach Roland Larsson insists his side’s semi-final clash with Nigeria at Rashid Stadium in Dubai on Tuesday will be “a completely different game” to the 3-3 result when the teams met in the group stages.
World Cup debutantes Sweden twice went ahead against three-time champions Nigeria to lead 2-0 and 3-2 before the Golden Eaglets fought back for a draw in Group F last month. It was the only occasion so far in the tournament that Nigeria have looked beatable.
However, Larsson is by no means stepping into this fixture on an overconfident note, having watched Nigeria rack up 20 goals so far.
“It’s another game,” said Larsson. “We had a good first game against them but that’s history. Now we are at the end of the tournament and there are a lot of new aspects to the game like tired players. The best team will be the one that has recovered the best.”
Asked what his side had learned from their first match against Nigeria, Larsson said: “We learned that if you don’t stay focused against Nigeria for the full 90 minutes, you will make a mistake and they will punish you.
“You have to follow a plan – run, fight and cover – especially to take care of defence. But defence alone doesn’t win games, so we also have to score and we scored three times against Nigeria, so we are satisfied about that. Nigeria have high quality individual skills and very good players. They play very fast passing football and have many tools to score from – the centre, wings, crosses and counters. It’s a complete team for attacking. We respect Nigeria but we still feel we can beat them.”
