Swedes peg back nervy England
21 Jun 2006
Swedes peg back nervy England
England and Sweden confirmed their places in the last-16 with a 2-2 draw but an early injury to striker Michael Owen gave Sven-Göran Eriksson s side cause for concern.
Painful injury
The Newcastle United FC player went down in agony within a minute of the kick-off in Cologne and was carried off the field. Initial reports suggested he had twisted his knee but a full scan will take place on Wednesday morning with many fearing the striker s FIFA World Cup campaign is over. With Peter Crouch replacing the injured Owen, England took the lead in magnificent style after 34 minutes as Joe Cole gathered a looping Swedish clearance and chested the ball down before volleying a tremendous dipping shot from 25 metres into the top left-hand corner of Andreas Isaksson s goal.
Dominant form
England ended the half in dominant shape but were pegged back within six minutes of the restart. John Terry had only just blocked Fredrik Ljungberg s shot when a Tobias Linderoth corner caught England cold with Marcus Allbäck glancing the ball into the top corner. With England s nerves fraying, Henrik Larsson and Olof Mellberg both hit the bar and Kim Kallström s shot was blocked on the line by substitute Steven Gerrard. Gerrard headed past Isaksson from Joe Cole s hanging pass with five minutes to go to give England hope of a win but Larsson punished poor defending from Erik Edman s long throw-in in the final minute. Group B winners England will face Group A runners-up Ecuador in the last 16 while Sweden take on hosts Germany.