SWEDEN-PARAGUAY: Coaches' Quotes

15 June 2006

Lars LAGERBACK (SWE)
It was a really good team effort from us tonight. I have a lot of respect for the Paraguay team but we created more goalscoring chances. Of course there is relief, but the players did a marvellous job and deserved to win.

Of course it's always frustrating when you're sitting on the bench and so many chances are being wasted, but it would have been worse if we weren’t playing well and weren’t creating any chances. If you don’t score goals, there are generally two reasons. One is that you are not doing well enough with your chances and the other, which was also true, is that the other team is working very hard.

With Zlatan (Ibrahimovic), he had a muscle injury to his leg and our medical people said that if he went out for the second half, we might not see him again through the World Cup. So we decided not to risk him. With the substitutions, I’m just really happy they worked. Sometimes they come off, sometimes they don't. We're going to enjoy tonight first and then focus on England.

Anibal RUIZ (PAR)
This is the World Cup, so of course this is painful. It’s painful for the boys, it’s painful for me, but this is life. Sometimes you don’t achieve all the things you would wish to. I thought it was a balanced match, although Sweden probably had more possibilities to score goals and more possession.

I attempted with my substitutions to give our play more aggression. Roque Santa Cruz was tired and Julio Dos Santos was going to play in any case, so it was a good time to make the change. Unfortunately, one player had a muscular contraction and that meant we weren't able to implement our tactical plan. But it's useless to complain. It hurts, but we congratulate the other team on their victory.