FIFA World Cup Germany 2006
Chile foil Swedish preps
Reuters, Stockholm
Sweden drew 1-1 with Chile on Friday in their final warm-up match before the World Cup and coach Lars Lagerback said his side would need to play more aggressively in the tournament.Henrik Larsson put the Swedes ahead in the 32nd minute after curling the ball around the Chilean wall in a first half where Sweden made most of the play. The goal ended a dry spell for the Swedes, who had not scored since a friendly against Saudi Arabia in January. But Humberto Suazo, put through by Jorge Valdivia, equalised in the 51st minute for Chile with the Swedish defence still leaden-footed after the restart of the match. Sweden are grouped with England, Paraguay and Trinidad & Tobago at the World Cup finals. Their first match is against Trinidad and Tobago on June 10. "I think it was a really good test for us against a technically very skilled team, but it is not now they should win the matches, it's when it comes to the World Cup," Lagerback told a news conference after the game. "The most important thing to learn from this match is that we need to play more aggressively, not to fall back too deeply." Sweden in the second half missed the presence of Arsenal midfielder Freddie Ljungberg, substituted after the first 45 minutes as he played his first game after a foot injury. Chile kept the Swedes under pressure in the second half, and dominated the midfield, but failed to convert several chances. Sweden, despite the presence of Larsson and fellow European star Zlatan Ibrahimovic of Juventus, created few further goal scoring opportunities. Sweden were also held to a draw, 0-0, in a friendly against Finland a week ago. Lagerbeck said he hoped to overcome the midfield problems by the start of the tournament. Turkey 3 Angola 2 World Cup-bound Angola were beaten 2-3 by Turkey with Kaiserslautern's Halil Altintop scoring the winner 6 minutes from the end. Angola went into halftime up 1-0 on captain Fabrice Akwa's goal in the 31st minute. Necati Ates equalised for Turkey 6 minutes into the second half with a powerful shot. Turkey went ahead in the 71st minute when Nihat Kahveci, who is moving from Real Sociedad to Villarreal next season, beat defender Luis Delgado at the edge of the box before firing a low shot past goalkeeper Joao Ferreira. Substitute Arsenio Cabungula pulled the Angolans back even with an 80th-minute goal, but Altintop scored 4 minutes later from a header to seal the victory for Turkey. Tunisia 0 Uruguay 0 Elsewhere, World Cup finalists Tunisia drew 0-0 with Uruguay in a warm-up match on Friday. However Uruguay won a subsequent penalty shootout 3-1 to decide a mini-tournament pitting the hosts against teams with styles similar to World Cup Group H opponents Spain, Saudi Arabia and Ukraine. Tunisia's French Coach Roger Lemerre fielded a different line-up to the one that easily overcame Belarus earlier in the week. The pace was slow with both teams having problems breaking through the other's defence, although Karim Essediri came close just before half-time with a powerful strike that tested the reach of the Uruguay keeper. The rhythm picked up in the second half but Tunisia felt the lack of Brazilian-born leading goalscorer Francileudo Dos Santos, while Ziad Jaziri was brought on in the 73rd minute, replacing Issam Jomaa. Uruguay won the shootout after 'keeper Fabian Carini stopped three penalties by Joahar Mnari, Riadh Bouazizi and Mehdi Meriah. Tunisia are the only North African team in the World Cup and, along with Ivory Coast, are the continent's big hopes in the competition.
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