Sweden Beat Portugal in U21 Euros with Solid Tactics and Collective Brilliance

Sometimes in football the best team wins the game. Not the best strikers, goalscorers, defenders or midfielders. Not even the top stars in the sport. Sometimes all it comes down to is a good manager who can implement the best tactics on the pitch. 

This is what happened on Tuesday night when Portugal and Sweden stepped onto the pitch at the Eden Arena in Prague to face off for the title of U21 European Champions. After 120 minutes of wrestling, jostling and a missed penalty from William Carvalho, Hakan Ericson's side went on to claim the title as their own for the first time in Swedish history. 

Remarks of Sweden's underdog status prior to the match may have seemed unfair on the now-champions, but in truth they went into a game that they had absolutely no right to win. Where Ericson's side had come into this competition with little hope of leaving their group, Portugal had arrived with a whole entourage of adoring fans and journalists touting them as the side to define this very competition.

This obviously isn't how the game panned out on Tuesday. Sweden started the match with a tight defence, proving hard to break down, and then slowly but surely the Scandinavians began to exert their dominance on the match.

Portugal, like Denmark and Italy before them, threw everything they had at the stubborn wall of yellow and blue, but in the end it was no good. Sweden's collective performance and the astute tactics of their coach had once again proven to have no match at this summer tournament of showcased individual brilliance. 

Although it may not have seemed as aesthetically pleasing to neutral fans as perhaps the daring runs and passes of Portugal, Sweden's organisation and astounding ability to move as one unit will undoubtedly have had true football purists on the edge of their seats. 

This wasn't a game of football that had Swedish winkers jinking between the lines, centre-backs making late runs into the box and blood-soaked defenders bravely throwing themselves on the line for every shot at goal. It was a game of football in which Ericson's side simply chocked Portugal into submission and quietly went about their business. 

It takes a smart team a lot of time and training to be good at attacking as one unit, but it takes a truly great side to learn how to sit deep in their own half without panicking or indeed conceding a goal. The manner in which both Oscar Hiljemark and Oscar Lewicki have sat deep in the middle of Sweden's midfield and dealt with three-men midfields throughout this competition has proven to be an exceptional example for any defensive midfielder in the game today. 

whoscored.com

As we can see from the Whoscored.com heat maps above—which show Lewicki and Hiljemark's average positioning compared to Portugal's opposing numbers, Toze and Joao Mario—we can note just how deep the Swedish pair are sitting in their own half and just how advanced the Portuguese midfielders are in return. 

Yet despite conceding so much possession and space on the pitch, this was a match that Sweden controlled from start to finish. 

Lewicki was a particular standout in the Swedish side on Tuesday night, breaking down moves and abruptly putting a halt to Portuguese runs and dribbles. According to WhoScored, the current Malmo starlet made 10 tackles over the course of the 120 minutes of play: more than anyone else in the Swedish side and more than Mario and Toze's combined tally for the night. 

Nothing was getting past this centre-back on the night. Not even the tricks and flair of Portugal's favoured players. 

Such a formidable defensive unit then allowed the Swedish front line to flourish whenever Ericson's side broke with pace and purpose. This tournament has seen the striker partnership of John Guidetti and Isaac Thelin flourish against opposition at each stage, and against Portugal it was these two players who outshone the more established names of Bernardo Silva, William Carvalho and Ricardo Pereira. 

Rui Jorge's side threw everything they had at Sweden throughout the match, but by the 70th minute the Portuguese coach had already made all three substitutions, and his team simply looked out of ideas. As normal time began to tick down, it was the Swedish side who were pestering their opponents with wave after wave of attack, as Portugal began to look heavy and jaded from ineffective combat. 

Matej Divizna/Getty Images

Ultimately the match would go onto penalties after another 30 minutes of extra time—a knockout showdown that came to a head when star midfielder Carvalho missed the fifth penalty for Portugal, an appropriate moment that did well to sum up the football that evening. 

Despite all their quick strikers, exciting playmakers and formidable midfielders, Portugal simply didn't have enough to break down a well-drilled, tactically superior Swedish side. Carvalho, Silva and Portugal may go on to win bigger titles at bigger clubs than their counterparts in blue and yellow, but on Tuesday night the better team won the U21 European Championship.