David Seaman
                                                   
 
  Danny Mills                         Rio Ferdinand             Sol Campbell                   Ashley Cole
 

  David Beckham                  Owen Hargreaves         Paul Scholes                 Emile Heskey
  (Kieron Dyer 63)                                                    

                                             Darius Vassell             Michael Owen
                                             (Joe Cole 73)

The Swedish team that played was:

                                                        Magnus Hedman
                                                   
 
    Olaf Mellburg               Andreas Jakobsson         Johan Mjalby         Teddy Lucic
 

    Magnus Svensson       Niclas Alexandersson    Tobias Linderoth     Fredrik Ljungberg
   (Anders Svensson 56)

                                       Marcus Allback                 Henrik Larsson
                                      (Andreas Andersson 80)

England were lucky to escape with a 1-1 draw against Sweden after a poor second half performance. England had a good start and played well for the first 40 minutes but then Sweden took control of the game and could have won the game late on.

As predicted David Beckham started on the right wing and Emile Heskey started on the left wing with Owen Hargreaves and Paul Scholes in central midfield. Danny Mills did get the right back position ahead of Wes Brown and Darius Vassell started up front with Michael Owen. Sweden had to start without their captain, Patrik Andersson who picked up a hamstring strain in training the day before.

England started the match well with David Beckham looking like he had recovered from injury. Sweden let England have a lot of the ball but still defended well in their penalty area.

                     
                      Campbell (number 6) rises highest to head England in front

After 22 minutes England scored to deservedly go 1-0 up. Ashley Cole got a corner after a good forward run on the left wing. David Beckham took the corner and from the centre of the penalty box, Sol Campbell headed the ball into the roof of the net ahead of Olaf Mellburg and the advancing Magnus Hedman for his first England goal.

After 37 minutes, Ashley Cole hit a long range shot but the Hedman saved easily. Then Emile Heskey forced a corner from a cross on the left wing - David Beckham hit in another good corner but Rio Ferdinand put his header well over the bar.

Towards the end of the first half Sweden were starting to look more dangerous. Just before half time Magnus Svensson crossed from the left wing to Marcus Allback but David Seaman saved well to his right.

Just after half time, Danny Mills received a good cross field pass from Paul Scholes and shot with his left foot but the ball went straight to Hedman. Ten minutes into the second half Fredrik Ljungberg had a good chance for Sweden but could not connect properly and the ball went out for a goal kick.

                       
                      Mills (right of picture) clears the ball straight to Alexandersson who scores

After 58 minutes of the game Sweden equalised. Danny Mills tried to chest a long ball from Linderoth back to his goalkeeper but the ball did not go far enough. Mills then clears the ball but only to Niclas Andersson just outside the penalty box. Andersson then moved the ball to his left away from Sol Campbell and shot past an unsighted Seaman (as Ferdinand was blocking his view) to score.

Three minutes later Seaman had to make a good save from Lucic after Lucic received a header back from Larssen and hit an accurate low drive - Seaman saved after diving to his right. A minute later, Seaman then had to save from Lucic again after a great through ball from Larssen. Sweden were well on top now and Linderoth blasted a good chance over the crossbar a couple of minutes later.

With twenty minutes to go, Michael Owen had his first real chance of the game but put his shot into the side netting when going for the near post.

When Joe Cole came on for the impressive Darius Vassell after 73 minutes, Emile Heskey moved to his more familiar position up front with Michael Owen (and Joe Cole played on the left wing). In the final ten minutes of the match Heskey had two good chances - he put one shot wide and headed a good cross from Mills wide too but looked more comfortable in that position.

In the final minute of the game, Ashley Cole missed a clearance and the ball went to Larssen just inside the penalty box on the right side. He almost gave Sweden the win with a shot to the far post but fortunately for England the shot went just wide.
 

The game finished 1-1 which was disappointing to England fans as England were ahead at half time. However, Sweden were the better team in the second half and had good chances to win the game. David Beckham had to come off in the second half due to fatigue but did admit later that his left foot was hurting too.

Who played well: In the first half Darius Vassell and Danny Mills played well for England and Rio Ferdinand looked solid at the back. In the second half, David Seaman made some important saves to keep England in the game.

Who could have played better: Emile Heskey did not look that comfortable on the left wing and cut inside too much instead of going to the by line. Michael Owen also did not have a great game as he had poor service and had to cope with a good Swedish defence. Kieron Dyer played for the last twenty seven minutes of the game but it was obvious that he was just returning from injury.
 

England now face Argentina on Friday 7 June, 2002 at 12.30pm (BST - British Summer Time) and will have to play better to get something out of that game.
 

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Note: This England World Cup 2002 website is also available using  http://clik.to/england 

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