Sat Jun 14 14:10:42 2008

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Villa's late strike stuns Sweden

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Innsbruck, Austria (Sports Network) - David Villa scored in stoppage time to hand Spain a 2-1 win over Sweden on Saturday, giving Spain two wins in its first two games at Euro 2008.

Fernando Torres opened the scoring in the 15th minute for the Spanish, but his goal was canceled out by a Zlatan Ibrahimovic strike in the 34th minute to even the match.

It looked like the two teams were headed for a draw, but Joan Capdevila sent a long clearance out of the back up the left wing that skipped past the Swedish defense and into the box.

Villa got to it first, touched the ball around Sweden defender Petter Hansson, and slotted his shot inside the far post to give Spain a dramatic win.

The result puts Spain on top of Group D with six points, and they will meet Greece on Wednesday in their final group stage match, while Sweden sits in second place and faces Russia in its next game.

Spain controlled most of the opening 10 minutes but failed to produce a clear- cut chance. However, that changed in the 15th minute when a short corner got the ball to David Silva at the top left corner of the box.

Silva then drove the ball to the middle of the penalty area, and Torres held off his man and lunged at the ball, redirecting it inside the left post from eight yards to make it 1-0 to Spain.

Sweden had an immediate chance to equalize when Henrik Larsson played Johan Elmander into the box on the right, but his right-footed effort whistled past the near post and into the side of the net.

The Spanish back line was the biggest question mark in the team entering the competition, and the unit was weakened in the 24th minute when captain Carles Puyol left the match with a foot injury and was replaced by Raul Albiol.

Sweden then took advantage 10 minutes later as they leveled the match through Ibrahimovic.

Defender Fredrik Stoor made his way up the right wing and took a long pass from the back. He then sent the ball across the field and into the box for Ibrahimovic, who had gotten behind defender Sergio Ramos. The Inter Milan striker brought the ball down, shook off Ramos, and fired a low shot that Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas got a hand to but could not keep out.

Spain had an opportunity to regain the lead before halftime when Villa hit a volley from the edge of the area that was stopped by Sweden goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson.

Silva also had an appeal for a penalty kick turned down in first-half stoppage time when he was crashed into by Elmander inside the area, but the referee saw nothing wrong despite a great deal of contact.

The Spaniards were enjoying the majority of the possession in the second half, and they put together a nice build up that almost produced the go-ahead goal in the 63rd minute.

Villa slipped a pass to Silva inside the box, and after getting free from a defender at the penalty spot, Silva drove a low shot on goal that didn't have a lot of pace. Isaksson stopped the effort but spilled a rebound that Villa followed up on, but the keeper was able to recover and save that shot as well.

Isaksson was called upon again minutes later as Marcos Senna made a run through the midfield and thrashed a shot on goal from outside the area, but the keeper got a hand to it, tipping the ball around the post.

Sweden's defense tightened up over the next 20 minutes, but they let down in stoppage time, allowing Villa to steal all three points for Spain.