Werder Bremen's Nelson Valdez's World Cup dreams were shattered prematurely as the futuren Borussia Dortmund striker and his team mates from Paraguay were beaten 1:0 by Sweden. The Sewdish win was all the more bitter for Paraguay with the only goal of the game by Freddie Ljungberg falling in the 89th minute. It was the South American sides second 1:0 defeat which put an end to any hopes they had of qualifying for the knock out stages.

The Swedish side are currently staying at the Park Hotel in Bremen and are traing at Werder Bremen's trainings facilities. The Scandanavians need only a draw against England in Cologne on Tuesday to guarantee second playce in the group but with the top two places in Group A still to be determined, Germany and Ecuador have qualified, winning could yet set up a knockout tie against the hosts.

Sweden need a draw to guarantee qualification but coach Lars Lagerback admitted he will take his time over the tactics he will use against the English.

The Swedish coach commented: "It’s similar to the game we played in Portugal in 2004.

The Swedes started in front of a 72,000 crowd in Berlin, an estimated 30,000 Swede's, with their much feared "Magical Triangle" up front of Freddie Ljungberg, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrik Larsson. The lethal strike force managed to score 20 of Sweden's 30 goals scored in qualifying.

"You have to think about your game-plan - we know one point is enough but you always want to win games, so we will take some time to think.

"It was a really good team effort and the team worked very hard. I think we created more scoring chances so it was a fair result.

"We didn’t finish well enough - we had some really good chances, especially Marcus Allback.

"I had a feeling of relief but the players did a marvellous job.

"We haven’t made it out of the group yet. We will enjoy this and then start focusing on the England game."

Paraguay are heading home early and coach Anibal Ruiz admitted it was hard to take.

He said: "We are out of the World Cup and it’s painful for the boys but this is life and sometimes you cannot achieve what you want to achieve.

"It was a balanced match but perhaps Sweden maybe had more chances to score and had more possession.

"We tried to change things and make ourselves more aggressive but it didn’t work.

"It hurts, it really is a deep pain I feel but we have to congratulate Sweden."

Sweden offered precious little in a slow first half with only a couple of long-range efforts from Kim Kallstrom of note.

Christian Wilhelmsson also tried from distance but whistled his effort past a post.

Paraguay keeper Aldo Bobadilla then easily dealt with a header from Henrik Larsson and a weak effort from Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Lars Lagerback replaced Ibrahimovic at the break with Marcus Allback.

And the former Aston Villa man had the chance of the game when he sprung the offside trap to burst through.

He lobbed goalwards over the advancing Bobadilla but Denis Cadiz got make to make an amazing mid-air clearance on the goal-line.

Bobadilla kept out a low Larsson free-kick while at the other end Jorge Nunez fired over.

Larsson got in another header after clever work from Allback but he could not keep the effort down.

The strikers swapped places soon after as Larsson knocked down for Allback, whose volley on the turn lacked the pace to trouble Bobadilla.

Ljungberg then sent the Swedes wild by directing Allback's header across goal back across Bobadilla with his head into the far corner.

The Gunners midfielder hit another low drive late on but Bobadilla pulled off a smart save to his left. (Sun)

Johnnie Muldoon