Sweden face tough task against Germany

Berlin: The World Cup moves to the knockout stage on Saturday with an intriguing clash featuring three times champions Germany and arch-rivals Sweden.

The hosts collected a perfect nine points from three matches, sparking a surge of patriotism and flag-waving in a country that before the tournament started on June 9 had long felt discomfort about overt symbols of national pride.

Sweden finished with a flurry after a slow start, securing their ticket to the second round with a late victory over Paraguay and two second-half goals against England, who finished first in their group and play Ecuador on Sunday.

Argentina, who started their campaign for a third world title in style with wins over Ivory Coast and Serbia & Montenegro before a scoreless draw with Netherlands, will face Mexico in Saturday's second knockout round match.

The halfway point in the month-long tournament marks the start of the exciting phase when extra-time and penalty shootouts may come into play until a team emerges victorious.

Hundreds of thousands of Germans and Swedes clad in their national colours are expected to pack the Bavarian capital of Munich for the 2030 IST match even though only a fraction have tickets for the 66,000-seat Allianz Arena.

The two teams share a rich 95-year football rivalry and a similar offensive-minded style of play.

West Germany knocked Sweden out in the quarter-finals when they last met at a World Cup in 1974 while Sweden won an epic 1958 semi-final clash.

Title Contenders

Germany coach Juergen Klinsmann has raised the pressure on his team, who have been transformed by a wave of euphoria at home from also-rans into contenders in the space of two weeks, by demanding that they reach the last four at least.

Sweden coach Lars Lagerback is equally optimistic that his side, the highest scoring in the European qualifiers with 30 goals in 10 matches, can get revenge for Euro '92 when Germany knocked Sweden out of their own tournament in the semi-final.

While most of the pre-tournament favourites such as Brazil, Argentina, Netherlands, England, Italy and Germany survived the first round, several fancied teams were eliminated in the group stage that concluded on Friday.

Czech Republic were probably the most prominent losers, earning just three points in a tough Group E with just a win over the United States despite their highly regarded team.

Poland, Croatia, Serbia & Montenegro, Ivory Coast and Japan were among the other promising teams sent packing.

Saturday's second knockout round match features Argentina and Mexico in the eastern city of Leipzig at 0030 IST.

Argentina won their group with ease ahead of Netherlands, who face Portugal on Sunday, and will be looking to carry on the form that earned them a 2-1 victory over Ivory Coast and 6-0 rout of Serbia & Montenegro in the best display so far.

Mexico have only reached the quarter-finals at the two World Cups they hosted and their finishing has been so poor they only made the knockout phase due to the failings of Angola and Iran.

The nations have only met once at the finals when Argentina won 6-3 in the inaugural tournament in Uruguay in 1930.