page_title: Sweden national football team
section_title: UEFA Euro 2012 and 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers
hierarchical_section_title: Sweden national football team / History / UEFA Euro 2012 and 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers
caption_attribution_description: 1 Andreas Isaksson &#160;10 Zlatan Ibrahimović &#160;3 Jonas Olsson &#160;11 Johan Elmander &#160;4 Andreas Granqvist &#160;9 Kim Källström 17 Pontus Wernbloom &#160;7 Sebastian Larsson &#160;2 Mikael Lustig &#160;6 Rasmus Elm &#160;19 Alexander Kačaniklić Deutsch: Österreich gegen Schweden am 7. Juni 2013 im Wiener Ernst-Happel-Stadion (2:1). - Das Bild zeigt die schwedische Fußballnationalmannschaft. English: Austria vs Sweden at 2013-06-07 in Ernst-Happel-Stadion in Vienna (2:1). – The photo shows the Sweden national football team. Camera location48°&#160;12′&#160;25″&#160;N, 16°&#160;25′&#160;14″&#160;E&#160;View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMap - Google Earth
context_page_description: The Sweden national football team represents Sweden in men's international football and it is controlled by the Swedish Football Association, the governing body of football in Sweden. Sweden's home ground is Friends Arena in Solna and the team is coached by Janne Andersson. From 1945 to late 1950s, they were considered one of the greatest teams in Europe.
  Sweden has made twelve appearances at the World Cup with their first coming in 1934. They have also made six appearances at the European Championship. Sweden finished second at the 1958 FIFA World Cup, and third in both 1950 and 1994. Sweden's other accomplishments also include a gold medal at the 1948 Summer Olympics, and bronze medals in 1924 and 1952. They also reached the semi-finals at UEFA Euro 1992.
context_section_description: Sweden's Euro 2012 campaign with their new coach, Erik Hamrén, started well with two consecutive wins in Group E against Hungary and San Marino. After that Sweden lost to the Netherlands in Amsterdam with 1–4, but then won against Moldova first in Stockholm with 2–1 and later in Chișinău with 4–1. After the battle against Moldova Sweden beat their neighbor Finland with 5–0. The following game was a defeat when Hungary through Rudolf scored 2–1 home at Stadium Puskás Ferenc at the last minute of full-time. After that Sweden defeated San Marino with 5–0 away including two goals from Christian Wilhelmsson, who before the two games against San Marino and Hungary hadn't been a regular in the starting eleven during Hamréns tenure as head coach. The Swedish team then proceeded to beat Finland with 2–1 and in the final game beat the Netherlands with 3–2 to end their streak of 17 consecutive qualification-game wins. On 2 December 2011, Sweden were drawn into Group D alongside England, Ukraine and France in the Euro 2012 competition.
  Sweden played their opening match on 11 June against Ukraine. Zlatan Ibrahimović scored from close range  after a pass from Kim Källström in the 52nd minute. Andriy Shevchenko equalized by heading in a corner just three minutes later, and in the 62nd minute, he scored another header. Sweden were unable to respond to this and lost the match 1–2.
  Sweden played their second group stage match against England on 15 June. Andy Carroll scored 1-0 for England with a powerful header in the 23rd minute. Sweden equalized through an own goal by Glen Johnson and took the lead when Olof Mellberg scored 2–1 in the 59th minute. However, England turned the game around with goals by Theo Walcott and Danny Welbeck. The two losses meant that Sweden were already eliminated from the next stage. In the third group stage game on 19 June, Sweden played against France. Zlatan Ibrahimović scored a spectacular flying volley early in the second half and Sebastian Larsson sealed a meaningless 2–0 win during stoppage time. After Sweden's early exit from the tournament, the veteran Olof Mellberg announced his retirement from the national team.
  Playing in Group C of the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, Sweden finished second behind Germany, and was one of eight teams to move on to the second round of qualification. A notable result during group play was their match in Germany on 16 October 2012 where they fought back from 4–0 down with 30 minutes remaining to draw the game 4–4 at the Olympiastadion, and was widely regarded as one of the most memorable comebacks in football history.
  Sweden's new national stadium Friends Arena in Solna was opened on 14 November 2012 with a friendly match against England, which Sweden won 4–2. Zlatan Ibrahimović scored four goals in a world class performance. His fourth goal was an extraordinary overhead bicycle kick from 35 yards, which later won the FIFA Puskás Award for goal of the year.
  A key win in their group was the home game against Austria on 11 October 2013, as Martin Olsson and Zlatan Ibrahimović both scored in the second half to secure the win at the Friends Arena.
  Using the October 2013 FIFA World Rankings, Sweden was ranked 25th overall and would face one of the four highest ranked teams in the second round of qualification. They were drawn to face Portugal, the team that beat Sweden for a qualification spot in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers. Cristiano Ronaldo scored the only goal in a 1–0 win for Portugal the first match in Lisbon on 15 November. 
  The return match was played on 19 November at Friends Arena in Solna. After Ronaldo scored 1-0 for Portugal, Zlatan Ibrahimović scored two quick goals to make it 2–2 on aggregate. Sweden still needed to score a third goal because of Portugal's away goal. However, Ronaldo scored two more counter-attack goals and Portugal won the game 3–2 and 4–2 on aggregate. This meant that Sweden once again failed to qualify for the World Cup. Due to this, Sweden's most capped player of all time Anders Svensson decided to end his international career.
caption: The Swedish team before playing against Austria in 2013 during the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
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