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Sweden falls to the Netherlands in football friendly

AFP/The Local
AFP/The Local - [email protected]
Sweden falls to the Netherlands in football friendly

Despite an impressive goal by Kim Kallström, visiting Sweden succumbed to the Netherlands 3-1 in a friendly football match on Wednesday night.

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Bert van Marwijk's Dutch side dominated from the outset with Dirk Kuyt, Robin van Persie and Mark van Bommel all coming close before the home side broke the deadlock when Wesley Sneijder's 32nd-minute cross was headed in by van Persie.

Both sides made changes at the interval but the Dutch weren't thrown out of their confident stride and three minutes into the second half, van Persie scored again, this time from van der Vaart's perfect cross.

Kallström pulled one back for the Swedes after 49 minutes, scoring past debutant goalkeeper Michel Vorm, but the visitors struggled to make further inroads and were clearly missing the cutting edge of the rested Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Liverpool striker Kuyt headed in the third goal for the Dutch in the second minute of injury time.

"I really like Robin van Persie who is growing into a player of the highest quality," said Dutch coach Van Marwijk.

Despite the loss, Swedish coach Lars Lagerbäck was satisfied with the match, praising several of his players for their efforts.

“Our defensive play was still in place, we came back in the second half, Rasmus Lindgren had a strong debut and grew into the match, Marcus Berg had a very strong effort with nice runs, but didn’t get good enough support,” he told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper.

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