World Cup: Sweden-Denmark: The Scandinavian Clash of the Titans...

The Big Match: Sweden v Denmark
Event: World Cup Qualifiers
Location: [Rasunda], Solna
Time & Date: June 6, '09 - 19:00 GMT
Referee: Mike Riley (ENG)

Sweden take on Denmark in what is a "must win" match for them. Denmark have enjoyed a fruitful qualification campaign thus far and are sitting pretty at the top of the group.

Sweden, on one hand, albeit a game in hand, have so far failed to find any form of consistency. They may still be unbeaten, but three goalless draws combined with poor performances, have been a real setback.

Sweden

Star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic will lead the line for the Swedes. Ibrahimovic, who has edged closer to a move to Barcelona,  has put speculation about his future out of his head to focus on this all-important qualifier.

""As soon as the final league match was finished on Sunday, I began thinking about the national team," he said.

""It's a very important match and it will be a good match, a hard one but fun. It's always fun to face Denmark, it will be sold out, they're our neighbours and we'll get to show who's the best in Scandinavia."

President of the Swedish FA Lars-Åke Lagrell however, admitted to being a little scared of the outcome.

A Denmark victory will not only halt their World Cup ambitions, but it could lead to more serious repercussions financially.

"Missing out on the World Cup would bring us a lot of problems, outside the obvious fact of not being able to compete in it," Lagrell said.

"Qualification alone brings in 50+ million kroners and after that, we have to negotiate TV deals and contracts".

"It will be a very anxious night for a lot of reasons beyond football itself".

Meanwhile, Swedish coach Lars Lagerbäck believes Portugal are a better team than Denmark.

The fact that he wouldn't find anybody in the world that would disagree with that, didn't stop him from stating the obvious.

"Portugal are better than Denmark,"  he said.

"We are playing a side tonight, who a little inferior, on paper, to the Portuguese team."

Lagerbäck is not convinced about Denmark's position as the group leaders. While he admitted they had played reasonably well so far, that was as far as he would go to praise the Danes.

" The table never lies, but after the two matches with Portugal, I believe they are technically superior and possess more gifted individuals"

"There is no denying Denmark have enjoyed a little bit of luck along the way".

"Case in point", he says, " When they, in the final few minutes of their match away against Portugal, turned a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 win".

Lagerbäck then proceeded to say, his side should not rely on Ibrahimovic too much.

""The more Zlatan gets to have the ball, the better it is for us. But he cannot create our game all by himself, no football player is that skilful."

"Of course we could send a good luck ball to Zlatan and hope he does one of his wonders, but you can only make that once or twice in a match. We need to have a game of our own that works."

Denmark

Young sensation Simon Kjær, has been handed one of the toughest international debuts one can imagine.

The defender, who learns his trade with Serie A's Palermo will be up against Ibrahimovic. Although this won't the first time, he's come up against him. Kjær played for Palermo in their 2-2 draw with Inter earlier in the season and he knows just what to do to stop him.

"I learned a few things from that match," he said.

"He is strong in every department and unlike the rest of the Serie A striker, I couldn't dominate him physically".

"One has to be extremely tight and try and pick his pocket. That way he gets frustrated and getting frustrated while under pressure can lead to disaster."

Meanwhile, Christian Poulsen has put the nightmare from two years ago fully behind him.

Poulsen was at center of the almighty controversy that ended in the Euro08 qualifier being abandoned, with the score at 3-3.

Sweden had raced to a seemingly unassailable 3-0 lead before half time before Denmark came storming back to tie the match at 3-3.

In the 90th minute, however, all hell broke loose as Sweden were awarded a penalty and Poulsen was sent off.

During a corner, a scuffle broke out between Poulsen and Sweden's Rosenberg which resulted in Poulsen punching Rosenberg in the stomach.

Poulsen left the pitch and Sweden prepared to take the penalty.

Out of nowhere however, a mindless idiot escaped the security from behind the goal and ran onto the pitch. He a aimed a punch at the referee but was impeeded by a Danish player.

The referee promptly picked the ball up, blew the whistle and walked off down the tunnel.

UEFA came down hard on Denmark and awarded Sweden a 3-0 win, which effectively ended Denmark's hopes of reaching the Euro's.

"I feel as if I've learned from the whole episode," Poulsen said.

"My actions were idiotic and my country suffered because of it. Regardless of what that fan did or did not do, I let my country down and I've had to live with it."

"This time around, I am prepared for any provocations and I will just let my feet do the talking. Hopefully will come away with the three points."

Arsenal's Nicklas Bendtner has once more given his critics ammunition to use against him when he claimed, he will be among the best in world next season.

"I feel as though, next season will be the season I finally get my breakthrough," Bendtner said.

"It has been a reasonably good season for me personally, eventhough the team didn't do as well as we hoped. I know I can do better though. I have an enormous hunger and huge expectations of myself, which I will use as a platform to reach the next level"

Bendtner realizes the area that needs the most improvement is his finishing.

"Every chance I miss, and there have been a lot of them this season, the fans will keep getting on my back, which I accept because a striker is meant to score goals."

"I am hoping to score more next season and hopefully with a lot of hardwork, I can reach the level Ibrahimovic, Drogba, & Eto'o are at."

Meanwhile, Pele has added fuel to an already fiesty occasion by declaring that Sweden are better than Denmark.

"Sweden have better players technically," he said.

"They also have that one superstar that rises above everybody else, which Denmark don't possess."

"As far as the match itself, I cannot pick a winner. In these derby matches, having better players is simply not enough and I wouldn't bet against either of them winning."

Probable teams

Sweden: Andreas Isaksson; Adam Johansson, Olof Mellberg, Daniel Majstorovic, Mikael Nilsson; Daniel Andersson, Christian Wilhelmsson, Kim Kallstrom, Sebastian Larsson; Henrik Larsson, Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Denmark: Thomas Sorensen; Lars Jacobsen, Daniel Agger, Simon Kjaer, William Kvist; Christian Poulsen, Jakob Poulsen, Thomas Kahlenberg; Jesper Gronkjaer, Dennis Rommedahl, Nicklas Bendtner

Prediction

Sweden 0-1 Denmark