Antonelius given Sweden chance

Tomas Antonelius was the main surprise when Tommy Söderberg and Lars Lagerbäck announced their 21-man squad today for the friendly against Norway on 17 April.

Unexpected return
The last time Antonelius played for Sweden was in the 2-1 defeat by Italy in EURO 2000™ when he injured his knee in a tackle with Alessandro Del Piero. However, since then Antonelius has excelled, particularly following his February move from English club Coventry City FC to FC København in the Danish Superligaen. "He is the perfect example of the modern back who can attack as well as defend," said Lagerbäck.

Ljungberg back
Arsenal FC's Fredrik Ljungberg returns to the squad as does Andreas Andersson, Teddy Lucic and Pontus Kåmark. However, there were no call-ups for Jesper Blomqvist, Mattias Jonsson and Pontus Farnerud, with the latter still struggling to regain fitness at AS Monaco.

Still time left
"This is not the final squad for the World Cup and the players who didn't make it this time might be with us the next time," said Lagerbäck. "They are as important for us as they were before the match with Switzerland."

Sweden squad
Hedman, Kihlstedt, Antonelius, Jakobsson, Kåmark, Lucic, Mellberg, Mjällby, Svensson, Alexandersson, Allbäck, A Andersson, D Andersson, Ibrahimovic, Lantz, Larsson, Linderoth, Ljungberg, Selakovic, A Svensson, M Svensson.