John Guidetti is happy to go into the final of the u-21 European Championships with the underdog tag.
Sweden face Portugal in Tuesday’s final with the Portuguese strong favourites after demolishing Germany 5-0 ahead of Sweden’s 4-1 win over Denmark.
Guidetti opened the scoring from the penalty spot and is thrilled at getting the chance to finish his season with a winners medal.
“It’s amazing, we showed why we’re here at this tournament and why we deserve to be in the final,” the striker told uefa.com. “We were clearly the better team today. We scored four fantastic goals.
“We maybe dropped a little too deep in the second half, but it’s normal when you’re so close to a European final. We’ve beaten what many people have been calling Denmark’s best-ever U21 team, so we must be quite good as well.
“Of course I was a bit nervous before the penalty but before the game, they had said they were happier to be playing us than Italy, so all the pressure was on them. We had already done fantastically. We just went out there and enjoyed it and were proud to play for our country.
“We knew we would get the chance to counter-attack because they had to take risks in the second half. We have quality players who scored the third and fourth goals, and I think it’s a fully deserved win, and we’re through to the final. We knew today that we could at least match them today. Perhaps against Portugal we’ll be underdogs, but we like that.”
Swedish coach Hakan Erikson added: “Some teams are quicker and more technical than us, but we are very well organised tactically. We have a team that thinks anything is possible and fantastic team spirit. So, it’s possible to win football matches with those qualities.
“To reach the final after coming through a difficult group is a great boost for the team. Today Portugal showed they’re a very good team, but we played them just a few weeks ago and we drew 1-1. They have now beaten a great football nation like Germany so that boosts our confidence a lot.”
