“England makes a comeback to defeat Sweden”

England 3:2 Sweden

(23' Carroll), (49' Johnson{own goal}), (78' Welbeck); (59' Mellberg)

Just 12 minutes away from the end of the match, England put a goal in for the win, crushing Sweden's hopes of advancing to the quarter finals. England led 1-0 at the end of the first half, but the second half is where most of the action happened. Though England had a own goal incident, they still came away with the win.

About halfway through the first half, England scored their first goal. Captain Steven Gerrard sent a long diagonal cross ball to the center of the box. Liverpool's Andy Carroll was there, and he jumped into the air to quickly head the ball into the net. Everything was going well for England as they held their lead to the end of the half.

Sweden decided to get serious as the second half began. Swedish captain, Zlatan Ibrahimović began to shake things up in the box, as the keeper just barely blocked his shot. Less than five minutes later Ibrahimović took a free kick that was deflected by the English wall of defenders. However, the ball rebounded right back to Ibrahimović who took a shot. The shot turned into a pass to Mellberg who shot the ball. English defender Glen Johnson slid in attempts to block the ball, but ended up putting it in the net for a slightly embarrassing own goal.

 

Sweden took this momentum and ran with it. Ten minutes later they scored another goal. Sebastian Larsson took a free kick, nicely crossing the ball to the top right corner of the box. Mellberg jumped up and got his head on the ball to send it bouncing into the left back corner of the net.

Though Sweden was on a high after that one, England wasn't having it. Less than ten minutes later they equalized. Ashley Young took a corner kick which was deflected right to Walcott who took a shot from outside the box. The shot just snuck in the net below the crossbar, taking the keeper by surprise.

Both teams then fought for a winning goal, and just as it seemed it would end in a tie, England scored. Only 12 minutes remained in the second half and Walcott had the ball. He dribbled down the right side of the box before quickly passing it to Welbeck in the center. It wasn't exactly a shot, it was more like a flick from Welbeck, but it made it past the keeper and into the net, giving the English the lead. They held the lead until the end. Their win puts them in second place behind France in Group D. They play Ukraine next for their last match in the group stage.

written by Donais Deetz