Sweden 1 Switzerland 0: Emil Forsberg’s deflected strike sends Janne Andersson’s side into first quarter-final since 1994

SWEDEN secured their first World Cup quarter-final since 1994 with a dogged single-goal victory over dismal Switzerland.

Emil Forsberg’s 66th minute strike was enough to hand the Swedes a last eight meeting with England in Samara on Saturday.

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They might have won by even more, but referee Damir Skomina reversed a stoppage time penalty decision after Martin Olsson had been shoved over by Michael Lang.

Skomina changed his mind after looking at the incident again on TV and ruling that the shove had occurred just outside the area and dismissed Lang for denying a goalscoring opportunity.

In the end it didn’t matter as it was virtually the last kick of a forgetaable game and there was no time for the Swiss to reply.

It was almost as though two nations famous for remaining bland and neutral had actually struck a non-aggression pact.

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Considering what was at stake for both teams, the lack of first-half intensity was alarming.

Neither of these nations have been beyond the last 16 of the World Cup since Sweden reached the semi-final all the way back in 1994.

Yet the occasion seemed to overwhelm both sets of players and Sweden’s pre-match talk of provoking Granit Xhaka proved to be a spectacularly empty threat.

In fact the first man into referee Damir Skomina’s notebook was Swedish full-back Mikael Lustig, the player who had been making all the pre-match noise about Xhaka’s poor disciplinary record.

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And that yellow card means that it would be the Celtic loudmouth who will now be suspended for the quarter-finals.

What little attacking threat on show came largely from the Swedes, with Marcus Berg and Albin Ekdal both wasting decent early opportunities.

Berg finally drew a decent save out of Swiss keeper Yann Sommer in the 29th minute before Ekdal squandered the chance of the half when he volleyed over from Lustig’s cross.

The disappointing Swiss could barely string two passes together but finally managed to carve out a shooting chance six minutes before the break.

In keeping with all that had gone before it, Blerim Dzemaili was unable to hit the target from Steven Zuber’s cut-back.

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With neither team seemingly capable of hitting a cow’s a*** with a banjo, it looked for all the world that this was heading for extra-time and penalties.

But just as we were preparing to dig in for the long haul, Forsberg put the slumbering Swiss out of their misery with a 66th minute goal out of the blue.

The Red Bull Leipzig midfielder took a square pass from Ola Toivonen before shimmying his way past Xhaka on the edge of the Swiss area.

Yet his right footed shot lacked any real conviction and would have been a comfortable save for Sommer until Manuel Akanji stuck out as boot and diverted the ball past his own keeper.

Centre-half Akanji had taken to the field with a crown shaved into the side of his head. That’s the only crown the blundering defender will be wearing any time soon.

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