Sweden national team manager Erik Hamren has said that he is looking forward to causing upset at the Euro 2012 by qualifying to the quarter-final stage of the competition ahead of the favourites like France and England. Sweden have been included in the squad that comprises of France, England, and hosts Ukraine. Many regard France and England to be the front-runners to qualify for the next stage, but Erik Hamren has said that he wants to spoil the party by throwing a surprise. Erik Hamren certainly has the weaponry in order to score the goals in the form of AC Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who has already scored more than 30 goals this season.

Erik Hamren has been appointed in place of Lars Lagerback following the country’s failure to qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Hamren has more than achieved his job by qualifying for the Euro 2012, but he knows that there is still a lot of work to do. Sweden created a major upset by beating Netherlands in the final qualifying game to make it into the Euro 2012’s group stages. Hamren reckons that the team can very well cause an upset once more at the tournament itself.

“If you have to be realistic England and France should progress from this group, but why the hell do you have to be realistic? Especially in the first match the host nation is usually tough to beat. Sporting-wise the sides are very even but now they have an entire nation behind them. It will be a difficult but very exciting match. If we had been realistic we wouldn’t have beaten Netherlands in the final game of qualifying to progress to the finals either,” Hamren said ahead of the friendly with Iceland after which they will be entering into the tournament.