"Sweden don’t have a Kane, Sterling or a Neymar. They are a collective team," says Eriksson
Wednesday 4 July 2018 12:01, UK
Sven-Goran Eriksson says England face an "extremely difficult" World Cup quarter-final against Sweden on Saturday.
England progressed to the last eight in Russia thanks to a historic penalty-shootout victory over Colombia on Tuesday, while Sweden eliminated Switzerland 1-0 earlier in the day.
The FIFA rankings suggest England go into the game as favourites - they are 12th while Sweden are 24th - but Eriksson does not think it will be an easy game for them due to their opponents' impressive defensive record.
"To score against Sweden is extremely difficult," Eriksson, who managed England between 2001 and 2006, told Sky Sports News.
"They have shown it so many times now. If England think they will have an easy match on Saturday that is a big mistake. I think it will be very difficult.
"England have the players individually to do something special. Kane is one of them, Sterling is another, but when I tell you it is difficult to beat Sweden it is the truth.
"In the World Cup play-off, Italy couldn't score in 180 minutes, Germany only scored [in Group F] with a free-kick at the end."
Eriksson, who was born in Sunne in Sweden, became the first foreign manager of the England national team in 2001 and was in charge for the 2002 and 2006 World Cups as well as Euro 2004.
England crashed out of the latter two tournaments on penalties, both times against Portugal, and Eriksson was delighted to see his former team break their bad run from the spot.
"Congratulations to England and Southgate. It was great to see England win a penalty shootout. Mentally, they were very, very strong. I'm very happy for them.
"I think England can go very far in this tournament. They have good players and they seem to be very organised.
"They have young, hungry players. You saw yesterday, they were the better team and won it."
Sweden will be without Celtic right-back Mikael Lustig for the quarter-final, but Eriksson played down the significance of his suspension.
"If one is suspended, they will put in another one and you won't know the difference," he said.
"Sweden don't have a Kane, Sterling or a Neymar. They are a collective team. They work extremely hard."
When asked if he would be supporting England if they beat Sweden on Saturday, Eriksson replied: "Yes, absolutely. I still feel a little bit English!"
