Euro 2016: Belgium beat Sweden 1-0 to qualify for knockout stages
Welcome to our live coverage of Sweden v/s Belgium.
On a sad night for Sweden, Belgium won 1-0 through a stunning goal from Nainggolan who hit a mean shot from the edge of the area. Other than that goal, it was stop-start match which wasn’t worthy of being Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s last game for Sweden. All right folks that’s it for now, we will see you in two days when the knockout stages start.
Check out the fixtures here.
Welcome to our live coverage of Sweden v/s Belgium. Here’s the starting line-up.
Sweden Starting XI: Isaksson; Lindelof, Johansson, Granqvist, Olsson; Larsson, Kallstrom, Ekdal, Forsberg; Ibrahimovic, Berg.
Belgium Starting XI: Courtois; Meunier, Alderweireld, Vermaelen, Vertonghen; Nainggolan, Witsel; Carrasco, De Bruyne, Hazard; Lukaku.
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And so the knockout stages beckon for the Euro tournament.
Here are the teams that have qualified and the match-ups.
And it ends 1-0 to Belgium.
90
3 minutes to and it’s time for Belgium to go forward. Not long left.
83 Goal 1-0
Bad luck. Belgium scored 1-0. Nainggolan with an absolute cracker from outside the box which swerved in. Reminiscent of that Roberto Carlos free kick.
82
Can Ibra does a Ronaldo for Sweden? Not long to go.
78
Lukaku fires it high. I don’t know, I just never rated Lukaku.
76
Another foul on Ibrahimovic, another free kick. Sweden's best hope is one of these free kicks.
75
Zlatan’s free kick was good but Courtois kept it out.
71
Remember Sweden need to score if they hope to qualify. They have to find a way past Courtois.
Meunier tried to play it high but that was too much for even
HulkLukaku62
Zlatan put that in with a trademark volley but that was offside.
54
Zlatan’s threat was snuffed out there with ease. How will international football cope without Ibra?
55
Belgium have been comfortably passing the ball and it’s all very easy on the eye but they’ve to find something in the final third. De Bruyne took a shot but a seas of yellow shirts blocked that.
43
That was close. A beautifully worked move saw De Bruyne whip in a beautiful ball which missed all the Belgium heads.
And the first half ends 0-0.
40 De Bruyne was clearly outside.
31
This has certainly been an end-to-end sort of first half but neither team have looked like scoring yet. Belgium break hard and only a cynical foul outside the area can stop him. Who’s going to take a free-kick among these talented players? An embarrassment of riches, but they end up hitting the wall.
26
Zlatan took a shot but that was fairly off target.
29
That’s a yellow card for Meunier. That was a cynical foul.
18
Hazard picks up the ball and passes it to the left but there was no one there.
16
Larrson just pulled down a player. What sort of defending was that?
In case you're confused about who qualifies.
Italy
Italy win or draw or lose they will top the group.
Belgium
If Belgium win or draw, they will be second. If Belgium lose they will be third or fourth depending upon the Italy v/s Ireland result.
Sweden
If Sweden win they will be third unless Ireland win and have a better goal difference.
If Sweden draw and Ireland win Sweden will be fourth.
If Sweden draw and Ireland draw, Sweden will be third.
If Sweden lose and Ireland have a better result, Sweden will be fourth.
Ireland
If Ireland win, and Belgium win, Ireland will be third.If Ireland win and Belgium draw, they will be third.If Ireland draw, they will be fourth unless Sweden have a worse result in which case they will be third.
15
It has been a slow match till now. It ought to get a tad more interesting since this will be Zlatan Ibrahimovic's last match in international football. Probably. Unless Sweden can do something special.