Sweden show spirit to end with a flourish

Sweden 2-1 Estonia
Sweden came from a goal down to earn a victory for the second time in five days, this time against Estonia in their final warm-up match before the start of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship finals.

Quick response
The tournament hosts were 2-1 winners against Poland on Friday and completed their preparations for the finals with an identical comeback in Falkenberg. Ats Sillaste gave Estonia the lead just before the hour but within ten minutes Pontus Wernblom and Joel Ekstrand had turned the game around for the home side.

Eight changes
Joint-coaches Tommy Söderberg and Jörgen Lennartsson retained only three players from the starting line-up against Poland – Mattias Bjärsmyr, Wernblom and Denni Avdic – but the changes did not disrupt their momentum as they enjoyed most of the possession early on. Avdic's shot failed to match the quality of Gabriel Özkan's dribble and cross 15 minutes in while Martin Olsson had the hosts' first significant shot on target on the half-hour mark. Then Wernblom and Emir Bajrami both came close to opening the scoring with each being denied by the frame of the goal.

Two headers
Instead it was Estonia who took the lead when Yuri Yevdokimov found Sillaste with a through ball and Pär Hansson was powerless to prevent the opener. The remainder of the match was a siege on the visitors' goal with Sweden's responses coming from two of their 14 corners on the night. Bajrami provided the set-pieces on both occasions with Wernblom connecting with a powerful header on 67 minutes before central defender Ekstrand made it 2-1.

'Added spice'
"It's a good feeling to have won both these matches," said Olsson. "It gives us confidence and we're also playing good football." Sweden now move on to their tournament base camp in Båstad, where Marcus Berg and Rasmus Elm will join the squad after completing their duties with the senior side. "They are two skilful players, and will bring added spice when they come with their experience from the senior team," said Lennartsson. Sweden's first match of the finals is against Belarus in Malmo on 16 June.