In the Irish corner, John O’Shea and James McClean – even Martin O’Neill when the mood takes him. And in the Swedish corner Seb Larsson.Only the Swede has a distinct advantage in the discussions surrounding the first World Cup qualifying showdown between the two countries in Stockholm on Friday night.
Sweden's Zlatan Ibrahimovic poses a real threat to Ireland
He is big. He is dangerous. And his name in Zlatan Ibrahimovic.'I’m sure John knows how good he is,' said Larsson, the former Arsenal midfielder. 'But I’ll mention it again if he’s on form that he’ll be in for a tough game.
'He is the best Swedish player since Henrik Larsson, without a doubt. He is in the top four or five strikers in Europe at the moment.'I’ve seen him a lot and played with him a lot, maybe a lot more than people have over here, and I think in England people have only recently started to realise how good he is and what he’s capable of from the goal he scored against England.
Ibrahimovic partnered Henrik Larsson for a period
'For that type of striker, he is one of a kind, big, strong and mobile and if he’s on form he makes us into a different team there’s no doubt about that.'After their astonishing 4-4 draw with group leaders and favourites Germany earlier in the qualifying campaign, Sweden have the edge in the race for second place between themselves, Ireland and Austria.'You don’t have too many nights like that I suppose,' said the Sunderland midfielder. 'We were four down after 55 minutes and somehow managed to turn it round.'Home advantage in the new Friends Arena also gives the Swedes the edge this week, although Ireland have never won against them in their four previous competitive matches.
Sebastian Larsson has Irish team-mates at Sunderland
Like the majority of the Irish squad, Larsson accepts the two nations are in the mix for the runners-up spot and a play-off match to take them through to Brazil next summer.
He added: 'I think we’re both chasing the top spot, that’s what we’re going to try and do, but realistically Germany are massive favourites to take that top spot as I think they have done for the last however many qualifying campaigns.'Of course, it’s a massive game for both teams, we’ve both had a fairly decent start to the campaign and for us to be at home if we can beat Ireland we’re right in the mix.
Sunderland wideman James McClean could be important against Sweden
'We have had some fantastic results in the new stadium but it can work both ways. We were really hard to beat in the old Rasunda Stadium but it was getting old and the new one was something we needed. It’s a fantastic stadium.'But I don’t think teams liked to go there. Now, teams probably like to come to the new stadium, but we mentioned that in the first few friendlies we had, especially the opening match against England, that we wanted to start off on a good note and make that a tough place for teams to come.’
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