Swedes aware of ‘Tricky’ Soca Warriors

“We definitely don’t look upon it as a warm-up match because playing your first match in a World Cup is always very important,” he said yesterday.

“I agree on paper Trinidad perhaps are a little bit of an underdog but I think they’re a tricky team. If you are not playing well you can easily lose such a game.”

Lagerback believes Sweden, England and Paraguay will be battling it out to progress from the group. “I hope, as in the last World Cup, we will end ahead of England,” he said. “But I think it’ll be a tight race between Paraguay, England and Sweden.”

The Swedes will be without first choice goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson against Trinidad after he was injured taking a ball in the face in training on Wednesday.

Lagerback would not be drawn on whether John Alvbage or Rami Shaaban would start in Isaksson’s place.

The Sweden coach said it was imperative his team did not concede the first goal. “It’s always important in any football game, and perhaps even more so in a World Cup opener, that you don’t let the other team score the first goal,” he said.

“That’s one of the main things, we don’t have to come back into the game and try to win the match from 1-0 down.”

Captain Olof Mellberg agreed that keeping things tight at the back was important to get a result against the Soca Warriors.

“We see it as a game we need to win,” said the defender. “We definitely can’t lose it if we want to go on to the next stage.”