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Despite dominating the first half of their match against Sweden, England only managed to capitalize with one goal from a set piece in the 24th minute when Sol Campbell connected to a David Beckham corner for a delightfully taken header. This, however, proved to be the English team's highpoint and the 1:0 lead they took into the dressing room at half time was not enough to break their jinx against Sweden, a team they have not beaten since 1968.
The Swedes came out fighting in the second half and took the game to their opponents, giving England several scares and forcing a series of defensive blunders that led to the game tying goal in the 14th minute of the period. Danny Mills failed to control a hopeful cross with his chest and swiped the ball clumsily away from the goal where it was picked up by Miclas Alexandersson who controlled it before rifling a left foot shot through David Seaman from 20 meters.
Seaman was called on to superbly block Teddy Lucic five minutes later after he was played through cleanly by Henrik Larsson. Beckham was substituted shortly afterwards, with manager Sven Eriksson saying he needed resting as he gave the nod to Kieron Dyer.
In the later stages of the game Michael Owen went close for England and Larsson struck a low shot narrowly wide for the Swedes as the match closed with both teams showing signs of fatigue. Their next matches in the "Group of Death" are Argentina on June 7 for England, and Nigeria for Sweden on the same day.
(Chris Price, chris@chosun.com )
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