In what was first commanding victory of the tournament, Sweden made up for Euro 2004’s miserly goal tally with five succesful assaults on the Bulgarian net.

It was a fine display from the Swedes who took their one goal lead into the second half and then completely dominated the Bulgarians. Freddie Ljungberg opened the scoring against Bulgaria on the 32nd minute of the first half and Henrik Larrson put them away with kick double salvo in the 57th and 58th minutes. But the man of the match performance came from Ajax striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who tormented the Bulgarian defence all night with his excellent pace and ball control.

Sweden’s first and third goals emerged after defence splitting moves by Ibrahimovic and Anders Svensson, Ljungberg and Larsson were left with point-blank tap-ins. Larrson’s first goal, Sweden’s second, came from a a great diving header after a superb run and cross from Erik Edman. It was one of the prettiest plays of the tournament and Bulgaria were powerless to prevent it. Martin Petrov was perhaps Bulgaria’s most exciting player on this match day, but the left-winger can hardly be blamed for not raising his team to the level of attacking brilliance shown by Sweden. Still more goalscoring from Ibrahmiovic’s penalty from a foul on Ljungberg and Marcus Allback’s one-on-one goal in extra-time simply iced Sweden’s cake.

Kudos to the Swedes: they can provide an abundance of goalscoring in addition to inexpensive and sensible furniture.