Published: 15 November 2011
by PAUL COWLING

ENGLAND 1  SWEDEN  0

ENGLAND beat Sweden for the first time since 1968 tonight, and in the process scored their 2,000th goal.

But with better finishing, and a little bit of luck, the margin of victory would have been far greater.

Buoyed by the weekend victory over Spain, coach Fabio Capello made eight changes, with only Joe Hart, Phil Jones and Theo Walcott keeping their places. 

But it was Gareth Barry who got his head to the ball on 23 minutes, from a cross from Stewart Downing, though the Manchester City midfielder couldn't take the credit for the landmark goal.

Barry's deft header took a slight touch off Swedish defender Daniel Majstorovic, and bounced once, before nestling into the bottom corner of the net on 22 minutes.

The goal came at the right time, as a Mexican wave had threatened to break out at a half full Wembley. 

A turgid start to the game, had done little to raise the noise levels of the crowd, of just under 49,000, which was the lowest at Wembley since 1998.

But, at least the opening goal was the cue for England to dominate, and they did.

Capello gave full starting debuts to Kyle Walker at right back, and Jack Rodwell in midfield, and both had impressive games. 

Rodwell went close on a couple of occasions, while Walker marauded down the right side in tandem with Theo Walcott, who drifted out of the game after a bright start.

He was eventually replaced by James Milner.

Phil Jones carried on where he left off against Spain, and put in a solid performance, and almost put England two goals up just before half time.

He stole the ball from Pontus Wernbloom, and charged down on Andreas Isaksson's goal.

But, the Manchester United defender's flick trundled agonisingly wide of the goal.

With the half time score at 1-0, fears that England would come off the pace in the second half, were unfounded – at least for five minutes.

But in that time, both Bobby Zamora (winning only his second cap), and Downing  missed good chances to put the game out of Sweden's reach.

But, Sweden were poor, with the mercurial Zlatan Ibrahimovic largely anonymous before being replaced by PSV Eindhoven striker, Ola Toivonen.

As the minutes ticked by the second half, the Swedes began to see more of the ball, but lacked any cutting edge.

Christian Wilhelmsson injected some pace into the attack, though Sunderland's Sebastian Larsson – deadly in the Premier League with his free kicks – wasted the few that came his way.

In central defence, both Gary Cahill and the returning John Terry calmly swatted away the light weight Swedish attacks.

Against a better side, England may have struggled to hold onto their lead, but it turned out to be a fairly comfortable evening.

What won't have pleased Capello, was the way England starting to lose possession, as the game wore on.

They had played some confident football on taking the lead, but the longer they went without the decisive second, they played with less conviction, and started to give the ball away, rather then build their pass count up, and run the clock down.

With Sweden's stubborn record against England clear for all to see in the record books, there was always the chance, the Swedes would snatch an equaliser.

Scott Carson (a second half sub for Joe Hart), exuded little confidence in goal, with his poor distribution and kicking, though he did well to tip a misplaced cross from Larsson over for a corner.

Capello introduced Darren Bent, and Daniel Sturridge (for his senior debut), but the pair failed to add to the scoreline.

Just as he was against Spain, Bent was isolated up front, and when he did get the ball, his control was found wanting.

Sturridge was pushed out wide left, but struggled to make any inroads in the game.

England mustered 13 shots off target, including one from Zamora, which went for a corner, while Stewart Downing missed a great chance for England's second, when he raced through, but shot straight at substitute goalkeeper Johan Wiland.

In injury time, Sweden were given a gilt edged chance to equalise thanks to careless play from Downing.

The Liverpool winger had broken free towards goal again, but instead of slowing the pace and running the clock down, his crossfield pass was intercepted.

Sweden broke forward, with substitute Emir Bajrami crossing for Wilhelmsson, but he ballooned his volley high and wide of the goal, with just Carson to beat.

Had that gone in, it would have been tough on England, who deserved to win by more than just the one goal, in what was by and large, a forgetful game.

But this was another morale boosting result, and their second 1-0 win in succession.

On Saturday, the beat the World Champions; tonight, they beat a side they hadn't won against for 43 years.

With the likes of Wayne Rooney, Ashley Young, Steven Gerrard and Jack Wilshere all missing from their matchday squads, England can take encouragement from a successful few days.

Thankfully, gone are the days when England fans would talk up wins like these as proof they are world beaters.

But a realism has finally set in, which will put the Three Lions in good stead for next year's European Championships.

They can travel to Krakow with renewed optimism, that at last, the pressure is off, and they can just enjoy themselves and see how far limited ability and a lot of luck takes them.

Goal: Daniel Majstorovic. Own goal 22  minutes
Attendance: 48,876