Trinidad & Tobago 0
Sweden 0

\n

Trinidad & Tobago made a magnificent World Cup finals debut yesterday when they held Sweden to a goalless draw despite playing with 10 men for almost all the second half of their opening Group B game.

The Caribbean islanders, made up largely of players from the lower divisions of the English league, worked tirelessly to hold off their vastly more experienced opponents in the second game in the group after England had earlier beaten Paraguay 1-0.

Under a boiling sun in front of almost 63,000 fans, most of them Swedes, Trinidad matched the Europeans even after defender Avery John was sent off just 35 seconds into the second half.

Trinidad came closest to breaking the deadlock when substitute striker Cornell Glen hit the bar near the hour mark.

It was a remarkable performance by a team who qualified for the finals for the first time after beating Bahrain in a play-off while Sweden are notable tournament performers.

The gulf in class was seemingly at its most apparent at the centre of Trinidad's defence where beanpole Dennis Lawrence and partner Brent Sancho of lowly English league clubs Wrexham and Gillingham were attempting to shackle Henrik Larsson and Zlatan Ibrahimovic - employees of Barcelona and Juventus.

However, the unlikely looking defensive duo were supreme, with Lawrence, drafted in to replace injured regular Marvin Andrews, proving unbeatable in the air.

Sweden did create several reasonable first-half chances as Ibrahimovic fired over a cross just beyond Larsson, Freddie Ljungberg and Larsson put efforts over the bar while Trinidad keeper Shaka Hislop tipped over a Christian Wilhelmsson drive.

The islanders' hopes of holding out for another 45 minutes seemed to disappear immediately after the restart when John was sent off for a second booking following a two-footed lunge on Wilhelmsson.

However, the 10 men came close to taking a shock lead after 59 minutes when Glen cracked a brilliant shot against the bar from wide right of the box.

Moments later Hislop, 37, parried a close-range Ibrahimovic effort.

The big goalkeeper was in action again 10 minutes from time when he threw up an instinctive arm to foil Marcus Allback after a sharp Swedish one-touch build-up.

It proved their last chance and the Swedes looked distraught as they trooped off the pitch.

"It was tough and it will be even tougher now.

"We will work very hard to win our next match," said midfielder Kim Kaellstrom, lamenting a series of missed chances by Sweden.

They must now lift themselves to face Paraguay on Thursday, while Trinidad take on England the same day.

Trinidad: 1-Hislop; 8-Gray, 6-Lawrence, 5-Sancho, 3-A. John; 11-Edwards, 12-Samuel (13-Glen 53), 7-Birchall, 19-Yorke, 18-Theobald (9-Whitley 66); 14-S. John

Sweden: 23-Shaaban; 7-Alexandersson, 3-Mellberg, 4-Lucic, 5-Edman; 21-Wilhelmsson (18-Jonson 78), 6-Linderoth (16-Kaellstroem 78), 8-Svensson (20-Allbaeck 62), 9-Ljungberg; 11-Larsson, 10-Ibrahimovic.

Referee: Shamsul Maidin (Singapore).

Red card: John (46).

Half-time: 0-0. Att: 62,959.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.