Allback hopes for Villa reunion

Aston Villa striker Marcus Allback hopes he will face club-mates Thomas Sorensen and Martin Laursen again at Euro 2004 – in the final a week on Sunday.

Allback’s Sweden side claimed top spot in Group C thanks to Mattias Jonson’s late equaliser against Denmark, whose side featured Sorensen in goal and Laursen in central defence.

If results went their way the Scandinavian rivals could meet again – but only in the showpiece match at the Stadium of Light.

“Great credit to both countries that we have got to the last eight, and I know we feel that it is not the end of the story,” Allback said.

“They probably feel the same and it would be really nice if we could end up playing them in the final, you never know in this game. It would be nice to meet my Villa colleagues again in Lisbon.”

The joy shared at both ends of the Bessa Stadium saw both teams and fans celebrating what will forever be a controversial outcome, with Italian suggestions that it was fixed.

Denmark coach Morten Olsen lost his temper at the end with the conspiracy theorists, saying: “Maybe [Italy coach Giovanni] Trapattoni should look at a video of the match and then he will see it was honest.”

UEFA have declined to hold any investigation and Italy, who secured a last-gasp 2-1 win over Bulgaria but were still eliminated – will now be left to their tears in private.

Allback’s club colleague Olof Mellberg hit out: “The Italians lost their chance of qualification because of their previous results in the group, nothing else.

“Now we feel that we are improving and there is more to come from us now we have won the group.

“It was a really tough game, Denmark dominated the first half, but we came back at them and then we dominated the game.

“They barely looked dangerous after that and but for a lucky goal that deflected to [Jon Dahl] Tomasson we were on top and improving.

“We are pleased that we have managed to lift ourselves, it is so good for the confidence for future bigger matches in the tournament.

“But we have shown many times that we can come back at teams and we are believing in ourselves until the last seconds of the games. That is a big factor for us.

“We feel we are steadily getting better mentally and physically. There are some very strong opponents left, every game now will be tough. But we have experience throughout the team and a growing belief in ourselves.”

Allback agreed: “We have had two games in the group when we have had to come back from a goal down, in this game we had to do it twice.

“It shows that we have the strength of character to handle tough situations, we have become stronger because of the way this group has unfolded and we aim to use that strength to go even further in the tournament.

“All this talk about 2-2 before the game was rubbish. Now it has become that result, but everyone who has seen the game knows that it was a fair game.”

Sweden’s former Celtic hitman Henrik Larsson, who scored the first equaliser from the spot, emphasised the growing Swedish confidence. He said: “We showed that we have a fighting spirit in the team and I hope we can keep it because it’s very important.

“As long as there are minutes and seconds still to play you can manage to get a goal and now we’ve done it twice in a row, we did the same to equalise late on against Italy.”

The Danes, who now play the Czech Republic in Porto’s other stadium – the Dragao – in Sunday’s quarter-final, were more deflated having seen the group top spot grabbed from them by Jonson in the final seconds.

PSV Eindhoven winger Dennis Rommedahl said: “It was a very fast game, we were on top, then them and we were leading with what was I suppose a very lucky goal by Tomasson.

“But even when they equalised we then knew that it would still be OK, for us and for Sweden.

“We had a few late chances to finish them off, we were trying to get to 3-1. We were then punished for not scoring those chances. It is crazy for anyone to suggest we were not trying to beat them.

“We know the Czechs will be tough in the quarter-finals, they have shown themselves to be a very good, attacking side.”