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Ireland stops Sweden 3-0
Steve Staunton picked up a 3-0 victory over Sweden in his first game as Ireland coach, with Damien Duff, Robbie Keane and Liam Miller scoring.
- Indo-Asian News Service
- Updated: February 25, 2007 10:38 AM IST
Read Time:2 min
Dublin:
Steve Staunton picked up a 3-0 victory over Sweden in his first game as Ireland coach, with Damien Duff, Robbie Keane and Liam Miller scoring in Wednesday's friendly. Sweden is bound for the June 9-July 9 World Cup, but looked lethargic against an Ireland team that failed to qualify. "It's always nice to start off with a good result," Keane said. "Damien (Duff) put us off to a flyer and from there we didn't look back". Staunton, who replaced Brian Kerr after Ireland failed to qualify for Germany, was just as excited. "It's gone better than expected, but what's more pleasing was the performance," he said. "I thought there were some outstanding individual performances and we saw some lovely hard tackling." Taking lead Duff gave Ireland the lead in the 35th minute. Coming down the left, the Chelsea winger broke to the centre and hit a right-footed shot that beat goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson. Keane, the team's new captain, made it 2-0 early in the second half. He chased down a long ball, out-ran Swedish defenders and scored a right-footed shot from 12 meters. With Sweden giving the Irish run to roam, Miller broke in from the left and scored on a blistering drive from 18 meters in the 70th. Sweden coach Lars Lagerback named a top-notch squad - headed by strikers Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrik Larsson - but it was unable to break through against the Irish. Sweden plays in Group B in the World Cup with England, Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago. Lineups: Ireland: Shay Given (Wayne Hendersson, 48), Joey O'Brien (Liam Miller, 61), Andrew O'Brien, Richard Dunne, Ian Harte (Kevin Kilbane, 61), Steven Elliott (Graham Kavanagh, 48), Steven Reid, John O'Shea (Stephen Ireland, 48), Damien Duff, Robbie Keane, Kevin Doyle (Clinton Morrison, 68). Sweden: Andreas Isaksson, Alexander Ostlund (Christoffer Andersson, 74), Olof Mellberg, Hansson, Edman, Tobias Linderoth (Daniel Andersson, 69), Johan Elmander (Mattias Jonson, 60), Kim Kallstrom (Anders Svensson, 60), Christian Wilhelmsson, Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Markus Rosenberg, 37), Henrik Larsson (Markus Allback, 78). (AP)Topics mentioned in this article
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