Date: June 17, 2016

Result: Italy 1 Sweden 0

Scorers:

Italy: Eder 88

Sweden: none

Venue: Stadium de Toulouse, Toulouse

Match overview:

Brazilian-born striker Eder’s late strike broke the deadlock in Toulouse as Italy qualified for the knockout stage at the expense of Sweden. Neither team had looked like scoring up until Eder’s goal in the 88th minute. Sweden failed to hit the target in the entire while the closest Italy had come was Marco Parolo’s header against the crossbar.

Key moment:

Eder’s goal in the 88th-minute was a bolt from the blue. From a throw-in, Eder chested the ball down and powered his way past three Swedish defenders before firing a shot past Isaksson.

Man of the match:

Like his strike partner Graziano Pelle, Eder had done little to threaten Sweden’s goal at any point during the match. But his late goal, out of nowhere, proved decisive.

Matter of fact:

Italy have won their first two matches at a major tournament for the first time sine Euro 2000, when they reached the Final.

Talking point:

Late goals are becoming a habit for the top teams at this tournament. After French winners against both Romania and Albania, Pique’s late header for Spain to defeat Czech Rep, England’s late show against Wales, Italy left it late to find a way through the Swedish defence.

Sweden, perhaps conscious of how Italy had beaten Belgium in their opening game, sat very deep and denied the Italians any real goalscoring chances. The closest Italy came was a header against the crossbar from Marco Parolo – until Eder picked the ball up in the 88th minute and ran at the Swedish defence.

Stats:

Goal attempts

Italy: 8

Sweden: 4

Attempts on target

Italy: 3

Sweden: 0

Corners

Italy: 7

Sweden: 4

Line-ups:

Italy

01 Gianluigi Buffon

03 Giorgio Chiellini

06 Antonio Candreva

08 Alessandro Florenzi (14 Stefano Sturaro 84)

09 Graziano Pelle (07 Simone Zaza 60)

15 Andrea Barzagli

16 Daniele De Rossi (Thiago Motta 74)

17 Eder

18 Marco Parolo

19 Leonardo Bonucci

23 Emanuele Giaccherini

Starting line-up: 3-5-2

Buffon – Barzagli, Bonucci, Chiellini – Florenzi, Parolo, De Rossi, Giaccherini, Candreva – Pelle, Eder

Sweden

01 Andreas Isaksson

03 Erik Johansson

04 Andreas Granqvist

05 Martin Olsson

06 Emil Forsberg (21 Jimmy Durmaz 79)

07 Sebastian Larsson

08 Albin Ekdal (18 Oscar Lewicki 79)

09 Kim Kallstrom

10 Zlatan Ibrahimovic

14 Victor Lindelof

20 John Guidetti (09 Marcus Berg 85)

Starting line-up: 4-4-2

Isaksson – Olsson, Johansson, Granqvist, Lindelof – Larsson, Ekdal, Kallstrom, Forsberg – Ibrahimovic, Guidetti

Yellow cards:

Italy: De Rossi 69, Buffon 90

Sweden: Olsson 90

Referee: Viktor Kassai (Hun)

Attendance: 29,600