So as qualification campaigns go, not one of our best, but the ending was one of the most beautiful. The Swedish national team in my life time are perhaps most known for memorable draws when it comes to the top teams: a bunch of them against England (1988, 1989, 1999, 2002, 2006), West Germany in 1985, France in 1992 and 1993, Brazil in 1994, Argentina in 2002, Italy in 2004.
When it comes to big wins in competitive games, there are not that many. Excluding the days before I was born (beating Italy and Spain in the 1950 world cup, Germany in 1958 and so on), and discounting wins that were big because of their importance but not against the really big footballing nations (Poland 1989, Denmark 1992, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Romania and Bulgaria 1994, a bunch of more qualifier and tournament wins against Poland, Bulgaria and Hungary, Turkey 2001, Nigeria 2002, Paraguay 2006, we are left with a pretty short list: wins I have experienced against the big teams in competitive games. Here they are, in chronological order:
29 May, 1983: Sweden-Italy 2-0. You may think that opening goal header from Håkan Sandberg was not very impressive. But for being a PE teacher in Örebro, he was pretty accurate. And then Glenn Strömberg, of course Glenn, took advantage of a pretty terrible Italian defensive header.
15 October 1983: Italy-Sweden 0-3. That Glenn again, securing a second win against the world champions. How did we not qualify for Euro '84 after that? By losing twice to Romania, that's how. I'm still upset.
3 June, 1987: Sweden-Italy 1-0. The absence of the clear goal opportunity red card at the time, a magnificent penalty save from Ravelli and a the longest 1-2 combination in history brilliantly set up and executed by He-Man cheeked central defender Peter Larsson made us believe in Euro '88 qualification. Three on the trot against Italy. But it went downhill after that.
17 June, 1992: Sweden-England 2-1. Efter a period of dominating Italy, Engeland became our next victim. Efter
5 September 1998: Sweden-England 2-1. Maybe more thanks to David Seaman than anyone else. But a fantastic start to our most impressive qualification campaign ever, I think.
8 October 2006: Sweden-Spain 2-0. Up until last week, the last time Sweden looked really impressive. The only game I could not watch.
And, then, the unforgettable 11 October 2011.
What ranks highest? The 1992 game is a championship game and secured qualification to the Euro semifinal. That is hard to beat. Beating Italy 3-0 away is near impossible, but these were world champions that were already out of qualification.
The game against Spain was against a Spain that had already lost points and that could not really afford losing many more. It was against a team that was about to develop to be the best team in the world.
But for us, for Sweden, the Holland game is special as it secured qualifcation. Similar to Turkey in 2001, there we were head to head against our rivals but here we played against a team with one of the most impressive winning streaks in history, save for the world cup final.
You can make a case for any of those for as the biggest win under the belt in my lifetime. So yes, 11 October was a big day.
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