Forsberg strike takes Sweden into last 8

Forsberg strike takes Sweden into last 8

St Petersburg: From the sky, situated on the head of Gulf of Finland, St Petersburg Stadium looks like a gigantic spaceship. The 68,000 capacity Stadium was almost a full house with 64,042 spectators. Although the majority of crowd present was neither donning the yellow and blue of Sweden or Red of Switzerland; it was Swedish fans who made all the noise.
Divided into two stands, they kept singing, "Andra sidan är ni klara?" while the other side responding "jajamensan fattas bara..." 

Loose translated of which comes to something like this: "The other side are you ready?" ... "Yes of course"

Sweden continued their dream in the 2018 FIFA World Cup with a 1-0 victory over Switzerland courtesy of their star man Emil Forsberg's strike in the 66th minute, which deflected into the back of the net off the Swiss defender Manuel Akanji.

The game which certainly won’t be remembered for all the attacking prowess would go down in the history of FIFA as with 60,000 plus attendance number of people who attended the FIFA World Cup matches down the years reached 40 million, as before Tuesday’s match a total of 39,981,062 supporters supported their team from the stands.

In a game, where Swedish keeper Robin Olsen and his Swiss Counterpart Yann Sommer were largely untroubled, Switzerland dominated the possession from the start, but it was men in Yellow and blue who created more threatening chances, as teams went into the breather went score still locked at 0-0.

Forsberg shines
After the break, there was more zip and intensity in the play as Vladimir Petkovic's Switzerland put pressure on their opponents but the Swedish backline led by skipper Andreas Granqvist along with Victor Lindelof withstood the pressure.

Forsberg, 26, kept pulling the strings of Sweden attack from his attacking midfield position as Janne Andersson coached side looked threatening on the counter but kept misfiring.

The game's only goal came in the 66th minute when RB Leipzig forward, Forsberg received the ball around the edge of the box, he cut inside on his right foot and fired a shot. His shot took a deflection of Borussia Dortmund defender Akanji and left Sommer a mere spectator as the ball settled into the left corner.

There was some drama in the dying minutes of the match as Olsen made a brilliant save to deny Switzerland midfielder Remo Freuler from scoring through a header in the first minute of the additional time after 90.

As Switzerland pushed for a late equaliser, Sweden broke forward with a blistering counter with Marlin Olsson leading the way. As the Swansea defender raced clear, Michael Lung pushed him from behind on the edge of the penalty box, earning Lung a red card. Although referee Damir Skomina had to reverse his decision to award Sweden a late penalty, the clock had ticked down, securing Sweden's path into the quarter-finals, where they will meet the winner of the last Round of 16 match between England and Colombia.

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