Euro 2012 briefs

Sweden punish goalkeeper for bum note in training

Sweden’s players have devised a unique punishment for squad members who under-perform in training, as a video published on the website of the Expressen newspaper on Wednesday revealed.

After losing a ball exercise during Tuesday’s training session, unfortunate third-choice goalkeeper Johan Wiland had to roll down his shorts and bare his bottom as a target for his team-mates’ shooting practice.

They come in peace

Poles have indulged in a little black humour as they co-host Euro 2012.

“It’s the first time so many foreigners have come to our country... unarmed,” is a popular joke doing the rounds.

Across history, Poland’s undulating plains were the scene for a succession of invasions from the Huns to the Nazis, the Teutonic Knights to the Russians.

Shevchenko in minor road accident

Ukraine coach Oleg Blokhin said Wednesday his veteran striker Andrei Shevchenko, whose brace saw off Sweden 2-1 in the co-hosts’ Euro 2012 opener on Monday, was unhurt after a minor traffic accident.

“It was a minor accident - not serious at all. He was not hurt,” Blokhin said.

“He was accompanying his wife to the airport.

Shevchenko was present at training Wednesday at Kiev’s Valeriy Lobanovsky stadium.

It’s just like watching West Brom

Sweden defender Jonas Olsson knows all about what tactics England will adopt in Friday’s crucial pool match - it’ll be just like watching West Bromwich Albion.

“The way England played against France is very similar to the way Roy Hodgson set the team up at West Brom. It’s an organised team, they defend well and are good on the counter-attack,” said Olsson, who worked with the man he calls a “top, top coach” at the Hawthorns.

Bilic on Balotelli - a player of two halves

Croatia coach Slaven Bilic says Mario Balotelli may or may not be a genius. But considers the maverick Italian forward a player of two halves.

“There is a circle and in one half there is genius and in the other weirdness. In between there is a fine line. Balotelli is a top class player, sometimes a genius but sometimes he does weird things.”