The National Team Captain: "Sweden's Offense Impresses"

Estonia's national team captain Jürgen Henn has studied Sweden's match against Slovakia. He cannot hide a certain admiration in his voice when he says: I believe it's difficult for any team to defend against such an offensive game.

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The National Team Captain: "Sweden's Offense Impresses"
Photo: Jonas Ekströmer/ TT

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The meeting with Sweden at Lilleküla in Tallinn on Monday evening will be the fourth in competition context – last year's European Championship qualifying, this year Nations League – in just over a year.

It hasn't gone so well for the Estonians, if you put it that way. 0–5, 0–2, 0–3. For those who don't count quickly, that's ten conceded goals and not a single one scored.

So is Henn sending in his team with those dismal figures? Hardly, according to the new national team captain. He has the same mission as his colleague Jon Dahl Tomasson. Rebuild, build new, build for successes somewhere in the future.

And it will take time.

The conditions differ drastically, but you can only work with what you have.

"Very important result"

Henn and his players enjoyed a step in the right direction over the weekend. The 3–1 win against Azerbaijan on Friday felt good – and for many reasons.

For us, it was very important to take a step in our development. It was, you could say, the start of how we want to play. Just considering that, but also because we need to take points, it was a very important result for us.

He is impressed by Sweden under Jon Dahl Tomasson. Here are some impressions from the 0–3 loss in September:

Sweden showed the ability to get the most out of their best players in their positions and on the areas they played. It was a big lesson for us to learn and it's something we really need to try to handle.

Quick turnaround

From Sweden's 2–2 in Bratislava, he notes:

A match at high tempo. An offensive Sweden that quickly switches to attack. I think it's difficult for any team to defend against such an offensive game.

Defender and former AIK player Karol Mets doesn't make a big deal of Sweden lacking Alexander Isak.

We don't attach any importance to it since Sweden has so many other offensively skilled players. We need to focus on how we collectively defend ourselves against a team with so many high-quality players.

Friday's 3–1 win gave confidence.

Absolutely. Our goal is to stay in the C division and that's why the result was very important for us. We're trying to crawl out of the bad periods we had with a series of bad results, says Mets.

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By TTEnglish edition by Sweden Herald, adapted for local and international readers

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