Swede dreams not just made of Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Zlatan Ibrahimovic might be the name on everyone’s lips but the manager of Ireland’s first opponents at the European Championship finals insists that Sweden are not a one-man band.

“No, we have a team,” says Erik Hamren. “Zlatan is not playing alone, so we have a team and a team that is really strong and works hard together and lets our world- class player - being the scoring man as he is - the best scorer for us. But we have ten other players working really, really hard to make him successful.

“We have just one world-class player but you can do a lot with that too.” Assessing the make-up of Group E, Hamren observes: “It’s an exciting draw. We have Belgium who are the number one team in the world and a really exciting team. We have Italy, in my opinion a ranking one team and a team that is always good in the finals. Of course Belgium and Italy will be the favourites and then Ireland and us are the underdogs of course.”

But underdogs do have their day, of course, as Hamren – who regarded Ireland as one of the strongest pot four teams - couldn’t help but notice when Martin O’Neill’s men beat Germany en route to the finals.

“I was really impressed with that result,” he admits. “I did not see the whole games but some of the games in the play-offs and they were really good results too. We know they are good.

“I haven’t analysed them so much (since the sides met in the last World Cup qualifiers) but we are going to do that now. I especially remember the victory in Ireland. We needed to win and we won after being 1-0 down. I hope we can do the same again.But that was (Ireland) two years ago: a lot of players have stopped playing and a lot of new players have come in. But there is still the heart and I like the heart that Ireland are playing with all the time.

“I’m sure Ireland and we - I can only talk about myself - want to be number one but you have to see that Belgium and Italy are the favourite.

“The first game against Ireland is going to be really, really interesting because the winner of that game has a really good chance to go further.”

For his part, Belgium manager Marc Wilmots is dismissive of the notion of Group E as some kind of nightmare scenario, albeit he talks from the perspective of being the manager of a team he feels are well capable of handling both the Irish and the Swedes.“A group of death? There is no such thing,” he scoffs. “It’s a tough draw – nothing more. The Republic of Ireland we should be able to beat. Sweden we can also beat. The first match against Italy will be the toughest. [Italy coach Antonio Conte] will not be happy to have drawn us either. The top two progress and Belgium and Italy are the favourites in this one.

“Sweden and Ireland play an English style of football, so we will try to find that kind of opponent for friemdlies. We do not have to worry about the players underestimating any matches. They have to be on top form from the start, so regarding motivation we could not have a better first opponent than Italy. We are full of belief.