It really was a case of unlucky 'Friday the thirteenth' when England met Sweden in Stockholm in the first game of their summer tour of Scandinavia. The Swedes dished out quite a football lesson to their illustrious visitors and fully realised the potential they had shown at Highbury two years ago.

The first two minutes contained two of the games important moments. After 90 seconds, Roy Bentley all but scored when he followed on to a bad back-pass by Leander and lobbed the ball over Svensson. The goalkeeper, though, somewhat luckily managed to keep it out of his net.

It was a crucial miss as Sweden then went straight up the other end and opened their scoring. Gren, lively throughout, caught England out with a fine pass for Carlsson to run on to and score a good goal.

England were stunned and it showed again in their play. On 35 minutes Gren was again the playmaker as a brillinat four-man move ended with Jepsson crashing home a shot on the run. The, three minutes from half-time, Johnsson volleyed home spectacularly after receiving yet another cross from Gren. That goal brought the near 40,000 crowd to their feet and they gave their players a standing ovation at the break. Mortensen had hit a post just before then end of the half, but England trooped off bemused and bewildered.

To their eternal credit, England rallied after the restart and in the last 25 minutescontrolled the play. When after 67 minutes, Tom Finney scored to round off a fine dribble and pass by Bentley it seemed that a miracle may be possible.

However, it was at this stage of the game that the ball began to run very unkindly for England. Bentley saw a shot cannon off a post and Finney was twice dispossessed when seemingly about to score. Then, in the last minute, Svensson saved bravely at Mortensen's feet when a goal seemed certain as the inside-right strode clear.
  

Even without the great Italian-based Gunnar Nordhal, Sweden were able to produce the power and precision that had brought them the 1948 Olympic gold medal. They scored their three goals  in the first half, with Eddie Shimwell being given a torrid time in his only international appearance at right-back. Chelsea centre-forward Roy Bentley was unlucky not to mark his debut with a goal in the opening minutes, and both he and Tom Finney hit the woodwork in the second half as Sweden battled to hang on to their three-goal lead. It was a Bentley dribble that set up Finney for England's only goal in the sixty-seventh minute. Skipper Billy Wright lost the toss and ir proved crucial. The Swedes chose to play with a setting sun behind them and goalkeeper Ted Ditchburn complained of being blinded for two of the three Swedish goals.  But overall England could not complain about the result. The football Sweden played was a credit to English coach George Raynor.
  

Source Notes

TheFA.com
Svenskfotboll.se
Original newspaper reports
Rothman's Yearbooks
Mike Payne's England: The Complete Post-War Record (Breedon Books Publishing Company, Derby, U.K., 1993)
Norman Giller, Football Author
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CG