Losing battle for Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland 1 Sweden 2

Tottenham's Gerard McMahon gave the small Belfast crowd its only chance to cheer just six minutes from the end of this difficult contest at Windsor Park last night.

He headed his second international goal from a Steve Lomas free-kick to restore some pride for a makeshift Northern Ireland side, who struggled after McMahon and Keith Rowland missed early chances.

Martin Dahlin put the Swedes in front in the 15th minute.The former Sheffield Wednesday full-back Roland Nilsson sent Jonas Thern free on the right and his low cross was turned into the net by Dahlin from five yards out.

Dahlin could have had a second goal after 35 minutes when his fierce drive was deflected wide, and five minutes before the break, Gary Sundgrun headed just over from a corner by the former Arsenal midfielder Stefan Schwarz.

Northern Ireland showed greater urgency after the interval but Klas Ingesson caught them on the break in the 58th minute. The former Sheffield Wednesday midfielder skipped past two challenges to score.

NORTHERN IRELAND: Davison (Bolton); Patterson (Luton), Worthington (Leeds), Hill (Leicester), Hunter (Wrexham), Morrow (Arsenal), McCarthy (Port Vale), Lomas (Man City), McMahon (Tottenham), O'Neill (Hibernian), Rowland (West Ham). Substitutes: Quinn (Blackpool) for Worthington, 77; O'Boyle (St Johnstone) for O'Neill, 65.

SWEDEN: B Andersson (Orgryte), R Nilsson (Helsingborg), P Andersson (Borussia Monchengladbach), Bjorklund (Vicenza), Sundgren (AIK Solna), Schwarz (Fiorentina), Wilbran (Helsingborg), Ingesson (Bari), Thern (Roma), Dahlin (Borussia Monchengladbach), K Andersson (Bari). Substitutes: Zetterberg (Anderlecht) for Wibran, h-t; Pettersson (Borussia Monchengladbach) for Andersson, 58; Larsson (Feyenoord) for Dahlin, 88.

Referee: H Dallas (Scotland).