Sweden

A well deserved victory for Russia who weren’t content to sit back on their two goals and attacked right through to fulltime on 93 minutes. In fact they finished the game with 56% of the possession against Sweden’s 44% and had almost twice as many shots on Isaksson’s goal with 22 attempts against Sweden’s 13 and three times as many corners with 12.

It was essentially a tale of both team’s star players. Russia’s Andrei Anshavin got his goal on 50 mins and the Castrol Index shows he didn’t stop running - covering over 1800 metres more than Sweden’s golden boy Ibrahimovic who ran just 8651 metres and who barely got a sniff of the target all night.

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With Andrei Arshavin making his first start after a two match ban, the Russians have had the better of the first half with 55% of the possession to Sweden’s 45%. Inspite of Russia’s one goal lead Sweden have began to get into the game inspite of being the oldest team in the tournament against the legs of the young Russian side.

A quick look at the amount of work done by the Russian defence when compared to their Swedish counterpoarts soon tells us that Russia are pressing and probing down the right, and the defence as a whole is striving to support whenever possible. In fact, if you compare the two heat maps from the Castrol Index, Sweden simply look like a skinnier version of their opponents - Russia Lite if you will.

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OK, OK, we may have been a little hasty in labelling Zlatan Ibrahimovic as the laziest player to grace the Euro 2008 stage after the first game, but if ever we needed proof that every squad is reading these pages, he’s it. After a truly woeful first match against Greece in terms of work rate and a slating by us, Ibrahimovic bucked his ideas up against Spain, and until he was taken off at half time covered most of the opposition’s half of the field according to the Castrol Index heat map below. Well done for paying attention to us, Zlatan, now go out there and score a hatful (Fantasy Football is a great motivator at Euro 2008 Statistics Towers!)

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It will come of no surprise to anyone who has been closely following this game, and the swathe of attacks Spain have had, as Sweden have been content to soak up the pressure - that Spain have been absolutely dominating possession in this second half. But still they await the second goal - an interesting conundrum when one considers how dominantly they pushed aside Russia, with a whole hatful of well-worked goals that came from far less possession.

But is this due to nerves - or perhaps Spain’s legendary ability to throw it all away during tournaments kicking in even earlier than normal… We’ve been analysing the heat-map, and we think we might have found the answer. And it all lies with last week’s hat-trick hero David Villa. You might remember that in the 4-1 demolition of Russia, his intricate play on the edge of the box, and top of midfield - led to some incredible inter-woven passes, and goals galore.

This time we feel it’s a little different, and Villa seems content to hang around in the opposition’s penalty area, and wait for the ball to come to him, ensuring less free space amongst the Swedish defence, and nowhere to perform his undeniably devastating skills.

Take a look at this heat map, powered by the CPI - and see if you agree….

A thoroughly entertaining start to the action in group D has occured thus far, with Sweden seeming to be far better at dealing with the attacking prowess of Spain than Russia were, and despite going down to a first half Torres goal - bring in a very respectable 1-1 at half-time courtesy of big ‘ol Zlatan. The questions in football are always many, but perhaps the most important of them currently reads like this - can the hardworking Swedes use their passion and workrate to hang on to what could prove to be a very big point, or even go on to win the game.

We’ve noted - thanks to our good pals at the CPI, that the Swedes have been grafting hard - none more so than in the cases of Johan Elmander and our favourite Daniel Andersson. Both covering a formidable amount of ground at half time (6,331 metres each - almost 2,000 more than lazy, lazy Zlatan) - it’s players like this that Sweden need to carve out chances for the prolific Ibrahimovic.

Oh - and just a quick one - take a look at who’s the fastest player on the pitch at the ripe old age of 36. You guessed it. Henrik Henrik, score a goal!

The first match of the day sees Sweden, fresh from their 2-0 walk in the park against the ultra-negative Greece side, take on the Spanish who will still be bouncing after the 4-1 victory against the Russians. The match may well be hard-fought in midfield, and the defences may be worked hard, but it’ll be up front where this one is won and lost (or drawn).

Henrik Larsson has twice (that’s twice) retired from international football, only to come back when his country calls and still appear as fresh and alert as he did when he was a much, much younger man. His body is still willing, too, as his stats against the Greek team showed last time out. He was the second busiest player in the side, and also second fastest, a remarkable achievement given his advancing years. It wasn’t a quick burst either, as he ran as far in the final 15 minutes as he did in the first. Let’s see if his body has recovered enough to give the Spanish defence a work out.

David Villa in the match against the fancied Russians managed to achieve a feat never before attained by a Spanish player in the tournament and completed a hat trick. He joins an elite band of players including Kluivert, van Basten and Platini (twice). Whether Villa will emulate the Frenchman and deliver two ‘tricks in the tournament (Platini scored three against Belgium and Yugoslavia in 1984) is yet to be seen, but he has plenty of time in this championship.

Tom thinks this will be a close-fought affair, but is backing the Spanish to triumph 2-1.

Jack reckons it will be closer, and finish 1-1

Stats, as ever, powered by http://www.castrolindex.com

Just been skimming the heat maps after Swedens confident 2-0 victory over current champions Greece, and noticed that Petter Hansson’s particular journey across the pitch was rather amusing. Take a look at the graph, provided by the Castrol Index, below which shows that despite the fact he *ahem* belted home that weak dribbling effort to give Sweden their second goal (or at least fell over the defender anyway), he barely spent any time at all in the Greek half, let alone their penalty area.

Go and have a look at the handsome blonde’s profile over on footymad euros site, and, if you’re scandinavian - have a drink for him on us.

What we’re wondering though is - perhaps he should get forward a little more often! Well done Sweden…