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Germany national football team
World Cup | Qualifiers
Oct 16, 2012 at 7.45pm UK
 
Sweden national football team

4-4

Zlatan Ibrahimovic: 'We were cowardly in the first half'

Ibrahimovic: 'We were cowardly in the first half'
© PA Photos
Zlatan Ibrahimovic says that Sweden gave Germany too much respect in the first half, before staging a thrilling comeback.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic has described Sweden's comeback from 4-0 down against Germany as "one of the best" nights of his career.

Erik Hamren's men looked well beaten when Mesut Ozil scored in the 55th minute, but the Paris Saint-Germain striker scored a goal that sparked a spirited fightback with 30 minutes remaining.

The 31-year-old believes that Sweden surrendered the initiative in the first 45 minutes, and could hardly put their second-half transformation into words.

"I do not know if it is possible to explain. After 4-0 and I don't know how long was left, half an hour, 35 minutes, so there were not many who would have believed how the match ended, but we did it," he told Kanal 5.

"There were 11 other players who came out in the second half, we played in a completely different way. I think we were too cowardly and had too much respect [for Germany] in the first half. But we got out, got the first and we gained more and more confidence. The second, the third and in the end we scored the fourth.

"I cannot describe it. You see the entire bench run towards the players, everyone is extremely happy and the fans were fantastic today. Individually, it's not the biggest thing I have done before, but as a team it's probably one of the best."

Sweden still trail Germany by three points at the top of Group C in the World Cup qualifiers.

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Tables header RHS

Group A

TeamPWDLPTS
Q Germany Germany32107
Q Switzerland Switzerland31205
3 Hungary Hungary31023
4 Scotland flag Scotland30121

Group B

TeamPWDLPTS
Q Spain Spain33009
Q Italy Italy31114
3 Croatia Croatia30212
4 Albania national flag Albania30121

Group C

TeamPWDLPTS
Q England flag England31205
Q Denmark Denmark30303
Q Slovenia Slovenia30303
4 Serbia Serbia30212

Group D

TeamPWDLPTS
Q Austria Austria32016
Q France France31205
Q Netherlands Netherlands31114
4 Poland Poland30121

Group E

TeamPWDLPTS
Q Romania Romania31114
Q Belgium Belgium31114
Q Slovakia Slovakia31114
4 Ukraine Ukraine31114

Group F

TeamPWDLPTS
Q Portugal Portugal32016
Q Turkey Turkey32016
Q Georgia Georgia31114
4 Czech Republic Czech Republic30121


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