To qualify as group winners ahead of England was a major feather in the cap for Sweden manager Olle Nordin and his crew. They had twice had scoreless encounters with the English, and during the game at Wembley, defender Glenn Hysén had given one of the most resounding individual performances throughout the entire Italia ’90 qualification. Sweden had capable players in various positions across the pitch, but first and foremost relied on a strong collective in their tactically astute 4-4-2 formation.

It had been a fine feat to come back from a goal down to beat Albania in hostile circumstances in Tirana, and this set the tone for their qualification after they’d secured that precious point in London. They would then nick a late winner in the early summer home clash against Poland, something which more or less ensured a two-team battle for the top spot. With five points from their opening three matches, Sweden could look forward to the return leg with England in an optimistic mood, even if a couple of heavy summer friendly defeats could’ve taken their toll on morale and belief: Losing 6-0 in Denmark against their arch-rivals and then 4-2 at home to France had been very unusual for a team well known for their defensive mettle.

After an even, yet relatively eventless draw with the English in Stockholm, the Swedish again had to come from behind to beat Albania, and they would travel to Poland knowing that a win would see them overtake England and secure that precious automatic qualifying berth. With Poland’s hopes for qualification gone after their 0-0 draw against England, Sweden stepped up a notch to claim probably their strongest win of the competition by 2-0 in Chorzów. They’d finish top of the pile, with England ultimately joining them for Italia ’90 as one of the two best runners-up across the three qualification groups of only four teams.

Sweden were another team where team consistency was key: Nine players had started four games or more, with three players ever-presents in terms of minutes played. The total number of 22 used also indicated relatively few changes. Much thanks to his out of the world performance at Wembley, Hysén was their best performer, almost averaging 7,50 from his five contributions. Behind him, richly gifted midfielder Jonas Thern, who had secured a move from domestic football to Portugal giants Benfica during the qualification, was possibly their most influental player from midfield, where two Italy based players in Glenn Strömberg and Robert Prytz had disappointed.