International Football: Swedes strike late to stall Smith's restart: Brolin breaches Welsh

Phil Shaw
Wednesday 20 April 1994 23:02 BST
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Wales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0

Sweden. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

MIKE SMITH'S second spell as manager of Wales opened with defeat, as did his first in Austria 20 years ago, although it was not until the final six minutes that Sweden sealed victory in an evenly contested friendly through goals by Henrik Larsson and Tomas Brolin.

A third consecutive defeat for Wales - under three different managers - had its plus points. Smith's experimental line-up was never outclassed by a Swedish side whose road from the Racecourse Ground will lead, in two month's time, to a World Cup finals date with Cameroon in the Los Angeles Coliseum.

Last month, when John Toshack took over from Terry Yorath for the 3-1 defeat by Norway, the Cardiff crowd's hostile reaction was instrumental in Smith being asked to take over again. This time Wales's performance was sufficiently spirited and cohesive, if lacking in the quality that players like Ryan Giggs and Mark Hughes would have provided, for Yorath's name to go largely unchanted.

Wales, indeed, might even have marked the Englishman's second coming with a victory if the Irish referee had agreed with Jeremy Goss's claim that his scrambled effort had crossed the line before being clawed clear by Thomas Ravelli in the 74th minute.

The first half provided little to cheer the 4,694 who had supported Wrexham's first international in three years. Iwan Roberts, enjoying his step up from the First Division, linked well with Ian Rush twice in the first 10 minutes, but Wales's all-time top scorer was unable to celebrate his escape from the midfield role Toshack had imposed upon him by hitting the target.

Neville Southall was not seriously tested until the second half of his record-equaling 73rd appearance for Wales. Headers by Kennet Andersson then forced him into two agile saves, but the black-clad keeper was left unprotected as Larsson, after 84 minutes, and then Brolin, with a deft finish in injury time, netted from close range.

Brolin, the Parma predator who faces Arsenal in next month's Cup-Winners' Cup final, was generally subdued as George Graham looked on. Graham, like Smith, would be ill- advised to draw many conclusions from what was little more than a glorified practice match.

WALES (4-4-2): Southall (Everton); Horne (Everton), Melville (Sunderland), Neilson (Newcastle), Bodin (Swindon); Bowen (Norwich), Phillips (Nottm Forest), Goss (Norwich), Speed (Leeds); I Roberts (Leicester), Rush (Liverpool). Substitutes: Blackmore (Manchester United) for Bowen 60; Blake (Sheff Utd) for I Roberts, 80; Hughes (Luton) for Goss, 80.

SWEDEN (4-4-2): Ravelli (Gothenburg); R Nilsson (Sheffield Wednesday), P Andersson (Borussia Moenchengladbach), Bjorklund (Gothenburg), Ljung (Galatasaray); Larsson (Feyenoord), Schwarz (Benfica), Ingesson (PSV Eindhoven), Limpar (Everton); K Andersson (Lille), Brolin (Parma). Substitutes: Blomqvist (Gothenburg) for Limpar, 60; M Nilsson (Gothenburg) for R Nilsson, 71; Kindvall (Norrkoping) for K Andersson, 80; Rehn (Gothenburg) for Ingesson, 82.

Referee: B Shorte (Rep of Ireland).

(Photograph omitted)

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