Swedes edge Swiss 1-0 to reach quarter-finalsNaija247news

Sweden’s brand of football may not be easy on the eye but on Tuesday they added Switzerland to a list already including the Netherlands, Italy and Germany as they marched into the World Cup quarter-finals.

Switzerland are unlikely to ever be on the end of a heavy defeat; during qualification for this summer’s World Cup, they conceded just seven goals in ten matches, winning nine.

Forsberg was allowed time to tee up his shot on the edge of the penalty area and, although goalkeeper Yann Sommer appeared to have it covered, Swiss defender Manuel Akanji stuck out a foot and deflected it into the corner of the net.

Janne Andersson will be anxious about how easily Sweden allowed chances in the first half in particular, with both full-backs looking uncertain and the two central midfielders not pressing as effectively as in previous games. By the time they faced Costa Rica in the final game, they knew what they needed to do; but a running theme throughout their campaign has been a lack of goals.

Sweden will be without Sebastian Larsson through suspension, meaning a possible start for Gustav Svensson in midfield, while Switzerland are without defensive duo Stephan Lichtsteiner and Fabian Schar after they picked up two bookings apiece in the group stage.

“I think you’d have to ask everyone else that question”, Andersson said.

Sweden may have exceeded expectations in Russian Federation but they are not done yet, and Andersson and his squad will now assess the players and their coming opponents before going into battle again.

Weakness: Goal scoring. Sweden’s victor against Switzerland came with the help of a huge deflection and they rarely looked like finding the net any other way.

The joke’s on Switzerland though, because the high taxes in Sweden have been used to build 50 sizeable football stadiums, while Switzerland only has 35 of comparable size.

Once more, Petkovic’s frontman failed to stamp his mark on the match, as Drmic registered the fewest number of touches of any player in the first half, despite Switzerland registering 65% possession, and again in the second half his team fired a collective blank and Drmic will remain their only goalscoring striker from the competition.

Blerim Dzemaili blazed over for Switzerland and Albin Ekdal produced the worst Swedish miss of the lot – none of which will come as any consolation to Berg, given this is the tournament in where he can finally emerge from a hulking shadow.

They will now await the victor of Colombia or England and, having seen off the Netherlands and Italy in qualifying, and then finished above Germany in Group F, Andersson says there is still more to come.

Referee Damir Skomina had initially pointed to the spot, but after reviewing the incident with VAR decided that the contact was outside of the area and overturned his decision to instead award a free-kick.

That was as close as the Swiss came to scoring in the first half, but the Swedes had far better chances to take the lead.

The last time Sweden made it this far at the World Cup was in 1994, when the team reached the semifinals.

Overall, though, Switzerland are still a team very much on the up.

“We’re massively disappointed. That’s a really bitter pill”, Sommer said.