hosts sweden send england packing published: sunday 5 october 2003, 15.13cet
thomas brolin delivered the killer blow as the hosts finished top of group a and sent england home.
thomas brolin struck eight minutes from time to bring the curtain down on an ill-fated england campaign and send euro '92 hosts sweden through to the semi-finals as group a winners.
england needed at least a high-scoring draw but more plausibly a win to get through, and had a dream start as david platt fire in after just four minutes. however, tommy svensson's side were transformed after the interval, and jan eriksson headed them level before brolin finished the job, beating chris woods after a defence-splitting attacking move.
deployed as a makeshift right-back, david batty played a role in england's opener, nodding the ball down for gary lineker, whose cross was dispatched – however awkwardly – into thomas ravelli's net by platt. platt had now scored england's last four goals, spread over five matches. tony daley, andy sinton and platt had further first-half chances, but could not find another goal to ease manager graham taylor's nerves.
svensson would say "the second half was the best i have seen sweden play for years", with substitute johnny ekström's running epitomising the rising pressure on the visitors. although they had presumably seen sweden's goal against france, england failed to pick up jan eriksson as he ran in to head in klas ingesson's corner from the left, and taylor then took off his captain, lineker, in what proved to be his final international game.
the path was open for sweden to seal their qualification with a goal that emphasised the gulf between the teams, brolin playing one-twos with ingesson and martin dahlin before clipping the ball high past woods.
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