EURO 2008 INFO

A stroke of genius of Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic has caused the premature collapse of Greeks, already at risk in defence of their title of Euro-2004 after their defeat 2 to 0 face the Swedes Tuesday in Salzburg (Group D Euro-2008).

The team of Otto Rehhagel is a very bad posture Saturday before facing the Russians, dryly beaten by the Spaniards (4-1). A defeat seal their fate. As the Swedish accustomed major tournaments, they could qualify for the quarter-finals when exploit against partners Torres and Villa.

Long, the Greeks seemed to follow the path of 2004: boring, but devilishly realistic. It was said they would rebuild their coup: sleep an opponent before a priori best to carry the piece on a kick arrested or a misunderstanding.

The head towards its own goals of defender Petter Hansson on a cycle Traianos Dellas could well be the case, but Andreas Isaksson intervened wisely (65).

And a minute, Ibrahimovic, hosted by heating a few whistles of his own supporters, responded by showing what a world-class player with his first goal in selection for nearly three years.

Just back from injury, short of competition, submitted his partner Henrik Larsson at the close monitoring of the duo Sotirios Kyrgiakos and Paraskevas Antzas in a system with three central defenders, the player of Inter Milan had so far been discreet.

Just this head, which had close connection in the first period (33) could it be expected this splendid gesture. Based on a two-on Larsson, eccentric right at the entrance to the surface, Ibrahimovic sent a missile into the window of Antonios Nikopolidis (67, 1-0).

Sonnés, the Greeks would lose their last hope in the aftermath. On a Larsson shot diverted by Nikopolidis, Hansson advantage of misunderstanding between Giourkas Seitaridis and Kyrgiakos to score a goal of raccroc that would not have disowned the Greeks (72, 2-0).

As to the latter, in a very long match boring, they did not show much, if not fire, scorer of the final won against Portugal's Angelos Charisteas, too crushed (7) and eccentric (39) to worry Andreas Isaksson, a little more fire sought by the rebounding of Angelos Basinas (45).

Well enough to hope that the miracle can happen again.