HAMREN FUTURE UNSURE

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The future of Sweden manager Erik Hamren is in major doubt after his team were knocked out of the World Cup qualifying rounds by Portugal. Sweden were taking on Portugal in the play-off round that would see the winner go through to the World Cup finals. Sweden were coming into the match with the presence of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who is regarded as one of the finest strikers in the world. Portugal for their part had Cristiano Ronaldo, who is one of the players on the shortlist to win the FIFA Ballon d’Or award.

This match was hyped up as the contest between Ronaldo and Ibrahimovic, but it was the Portuguese who came out on top after scoring only four goals in the tie. He scored the only goal of the game in the 1-0 win in the first leg, which was followed by a thrilling 3-2 victory for Portugal in the second leg. Ronaldo scored a hat-trick in response to Ibrahimovic scoring two goals. As a result of this defeat, Portugal go through to the World Cup finals 4-2 on aggregate leaving Hamren to think long and hard about his future.

“Today it’s too early to talk about [my future], I’m just too disappointed. I just want to go to bed and stay there. But we’ll have that discussion in a short while. It’s a fantastic job, but we’ll see,” said the disappointed Swedish boss after the match. Ibrahimovic said that he will not be watching the World Cup, which will be held without his presence.

His contract with the Swedish national team comes to an end in a few months time, and it looks like they will not be renewing the contract after the failure to reach the World Cup. Hamren chose not to talk about his future after the match.

GROUP C IS TIGHT

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Group C is fast approaching a great climax, and the Republic of Ireland will not be adopting a defensive approach to the game according to Sweden manager Erik Hamren. Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni used a very defensive tactics against Sweden when the two teams met each other earlier in the qualification campaign. This led to a boring 0-0 draw between the two teams, but Hamren thinks that the fans could be given a spectacle of attacking football because both teams need to win. It was not good enough for both teams and this could propel them into playing an attacking style of football.

Sweden will undoubtedly be the favourites to get victory from the match due to the presence of PSG striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who is regarded as one of the best strikers in the world. Ireland will want to give manager Trapattoni a resounding send off. He is widely believed to be on his last few matches as the manager of Ireland. Germany are on course to winning the group, which leaves the likes of Sweden and Austria to fight for the second and final qualification spot. Both teams are very close to each other with only a couple of points separating them.

Hamren has stated that he wants three points from this match despite this being an away encounter.

“I expect a different kind of match to the one in Stockholm, a more open game. I hope we’ll be able to find the space in behind them to play the ball into. They (Ireland) will hopefully open up a little more, opening up space for us, but then that means we’ll have it a little more difficult defensively. Underestimating? You can forget that. That never happens at this level. Maybe in a friendly, but not in a competitive game,” said Hamren.