Honesty is best policy for Swedes

Post-match reaction/Italy v Sweden: You have to hand it to the Swedes, they are nothing if not honest. In the immediate aftermath of their 1-1 draw with Italy tonight both star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic and coach Lars Lagerbark were sporting enough to admit that Dame Fortune had smiled on them, somewhat.

Man of the Match, Ibrahimovic, scorer of a deliciously cheeky equaliser, said candidly: "We are very satisfied. I scored a lucky goal. If you look at the match, especially the first half, you would have to say that Italy had a lot of chances and could maybe have scored more. So I would have to say I am happy.

"We let them play too much football in the first half and it was only when we chased and pushed up on them a bit more in the second half that we got back into the game. It's always difficult to play against Italy. You have to keep on fighting, do your job, hope to get a chance and then take that chance and that's what we did." Ibrahimovic's boss, coach Lagerback, sounded an equally frank note when asked by the Irish Times if he considered the draw a fair result: "You are always hoping that you will get back into the game. As for the fair result, well we were a bit lucky, I think.They played some good, flowing football especially in the first half but we stuck to our game." Inevitably coach Trapattoni was in sombre mood, even if he was gratified by the compliments of various non-Italian journalists, one of whom described Italy's first half performance as the best by any side at the competition so far: "To all those Italians who were asking why they should even bother to watch TV tonight, after the disappointment of the game against Denmark, I think to them we gave a very emphatic answer.We did well in the first half, we had our chances but we used up a lot of energy and resources.

"We didn't try to close the game down at 1-0 in our favour but it was Sweden who forced their way back into the match late in the game. I brought on Fiore for Cassano because we were suffering on our right, their left, and I felt that we needed a more experienced hand to ride out the storm." Trapattoni also argued that it was impossible for any side to dominate the entire match and that in several games at the tournament so far, the pendulum has swung in favour of the other team in the second half. Asked what sort of calculations he was making about the final game against Bulgaria and the inevitably complex group mathematics, Trapattoni said: "The only calculation is to go out there and win.As far as tonight is concerned, the important thing is that we created a lot chances, maybe seven or eight, even if we missed most of them. We still created more chances that we did against Denmark last Monday.

Asked about the fact that Inter Milan striker Christian Vieri had missed at least five headers in front of goal, Trapattoni defended his player, commenting: "Vieri does a great job for us. To error is only human".