{"id":167025,"date":"2015-11-15T06:37:23","date_gmt":"2015-11-15T06:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=167025"},"modified":"2015-11-15T06:37:23","modified_gmt":"2015-11-15T06:37:23","slug":"sweden-edge-denmark-in-euro-playoff-first-leg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=167025","title":{"rendered":"Sweden edge Denmark in Euro playoff first leg"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sweden hold a slender advantage after the first leg of their Euro 2016 play-off tie against rivals Denmark.<\/p>\n

Emil Forsberg swept the ball home with a crisp finish in the first half before he was fouled for a penalty converted by skipper Zlatan Ibrahimovic – his first goal against Denmark.<\/p>\n

But the Danes pulled a precious goal back when Nicolai Jorgensen stabbed the ball home at the far post.<\/p>\n

It leaves the return leg in Copenhagen on 17 November delicately poised.<\/p>\n

Tuesday’s match will be the 105th meeting between the Scandinavian rivals and it could yet be the last game in charge for Denmark coach Morten Olsen.<\/p>\n

He won 102 caps as a player and has coached Denmark since 2000, reaching four major finals, but announced earlier in the year that the Euro 2016 campaign will be his last.<\/p>\n

It was looking particularly dire for him at one point but his team rallied after pulling a goal back and it was Sweden who were hanging on at the end.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Euro 2016 play-off dates<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Norway v Hungary<\/strong> (Agg: 0-1); Second leg in Budapest (Sun 15 Nov 19:45 GMT)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bosnia-Herzegovina v Republic of Ireland<\/strong> (Agg 1-1); Second leg in Dublin (Mon 16 Nov 19:45 GMT)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ukraine v Slovenia<\/strong> (Agg 2-0); Second leg in Maribor (Tue 17 Nov 19:45 GMT)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sweden v Denmark <\/strong>(Agg 2-1); Second leg in Copenhagen (Tues 17 Nov 19:45 GMT)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Read a guide to all of the play-off games here.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

The match, played at the Friends Arena in Solna, started slowly but Leicester keeper Kasper Schmeichel made a brilliant save to deny Marcus Berg midway through the opening half after the Panathinaikos striker connected with a Oscar Lewicki cross.<\/p>\n

Berg should really have put the home side in front just after the half-hour mark after Ibrahimovic played him through but the striker dragged his shot across goal and wide.<\/p>\n

Nicklas Bendtner might have punished the Swedes’ profligacy but could not find the target after Christian Eriksen’s through ball put him in a brilliant position.<\/p>\n

That was as good as it got in the opening half for Denmark, with Forsberg superbly connecting with Mikael Lustig’s pull-back for the opener.<\/p>\n

\"Emil<\/p>\n

Forsberg took his goal superbly for Sweden with a crisp first-time finish<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

And after Schmeichel rescued his team once again with a save from an Ibrahimovic free-kick on the stroke of half-time, the keeper was powerless to stop the striker’s penalty after Thomas Kahlenberg tripped Forsberg.<\/p>\n

Ibrahimovic – this week named his country’s footballer of the year for the 10th time – had the ball in the net again but that effort was ruled out for offside.<\/p>\n

And after failing to score a third goal, Sweden were punished for switching off at a corner, Jorgensen converting a flick-on from Yussuf Poulsen.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC Sport<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sweden hold a slender advantage after the first leg of their Euro 2016 play-off tie against rivals Denmark. Emil Forsberg swept the ball home with a crisp finish in the first half before he was fouled for a penalty converted by skipper Zlatan Ibrahimovic – his first goal against Denmark. But the Danes pulled a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":167026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[29,3],"class_list":["post-167025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dr-mahamudu-bawumia","tag-ghana-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=167025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/167026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=167025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=167025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=167025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}