Same again for Gerrard - Skipper confident of victory over Sweden

Posted Friday, June 15, 2012 by skysports.com

Same again for Gerrard - Skipper confident of victory over Sweden
Steven Gerrard: Is confident England can beat Sweden if they play like they did against France

England captain Steven Gerrard is confident his side will beat Sweden if they put in the same level of performance as they did against France.

The Three Lions battled to a 1-1 draw against the group favourites in Donetsk on Monday, with Joleon Lescott's header cancelled out by Samir Nasri's long-range strike just before half-time.

Sweden, meanwhile, began their Group D campaign with a surprise 2-1 defeat by co-hosts Ukraine, meaning Erik Hamren's men have to beat England if they are to have a realistic chance of making it through to the knockout stages.

Gerrard accepts that England may have to show a bit more attacking ambition in Kiev on Friday, but is confident they can claim all three points if they match their efforts from Monday.

"I would think the same level of performance against France will be good enough to beat Sweden," said the Liverpool midfielder.

"I would say so with all due respect to Sweden who are a good, strong team, but they are not France.

More ambitious

"I think we can be a little bit more bold and a little bit more ambitious and get at the Swedes a little bit more.

"Although we are confident, that's not to say we won't be trying to learn from the mistakes we made in the first game.

"We've analysed what we did right and wrong against France and we will be trying to improve on our performance as well.

"I'm really happy with the start we've made to the tournament. It was really solid and we've left ourselves a good platform to build on.

"The boys are confident we will be on four points after this next game and that will be a good start to this group."

Talismanic striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic will again be central to Sweden's hopes of success against England.

The AC Milan forward captains the side and opened the scoring against the Ukraine on Monday.

Threat

Gerrard revealed that England have paid particular attention to combating the threat of the 30-year-old striker in training this week.

"Ibrahimovic is a world-class talent and he is very dangerous so we need the same level of commitment defensively to try and stop him," he added.

"If you give him time and space, he can hurt any team and we are well aware of him.

"We've watched videos of him and we are going to watch some more so we are going to be well prepared for Ibrahimovic.

"But he is not the only good player Sweden have. We have to worry about them as a whole team.

"They get dangerous crosses into the box, they are a big side. There is a lot more threat from Sweden than Ibrahimovic but he is a world-class talent."