Spain's David Villa reacts after scoring the winning goal against Sweden on Saturday. (Martin Meissner/Associated Press)David Villa is making Spanish fans forget all about Raul.
The Valencia forward scored in injury time to lift Spain to a thrilling 2-1 victory over Sweden Saturday at Euro 2008 from Innsbruck, Austria, virtually assuring the Spaniards a place in the quarter-finals.
The game appeared to be headed to a stalemate, but Villa came to Spain's rescue when he collected a long ball pumped into Sweden's half and then slipped between two defenders before effortlessly slotting the ball home to sink the Swedes.
"It's of course bitter to lose like this in the final seconds," Sweden coach Lars Lagerback said.
Spanish manager Luis Aragones was criticized in the lead-up to the tournament for not naming Raul to his squad, even though the Real Madrid striker is Spain's all-time leading scorer and was coming off his best season in years.
But Villa, having scored a hat trick in Spain's opening 4-1 win over Russia, is making Aragones look like a genius.
"I'm prouder of this goal than I was of the three that I scored the other day," Villa said. "It's good for me to be able to be there and bring three points for Spain. Today, we suffered a little bit more."
Thanks to Villa's late heroics, Spain sits in first place in Group D with six points, ahead of Sweden (three points) and Greece and Russia. The Greeks and Russians, who both lost their opening games, meet later in Salzburg on Saturday.
While Spain's lineup remained unchanged from the Russia game, Sweden was forced shuffle due to the injuries to defender Niclas Alexandersson and midfielder Christian Wilhelmsson. Lagerback brought in defender Fredrik Stoor and winger Johan Elmander, and switched from a traditional from 4-4-2 to an attacking 4-3-3 formation.
Spain started brightly and it took them just 15 minutes to break the Swedish breach. David Silva played a cross deep into the box and Fernando Torres stuck a foot out to poke it into the corner of the net.
The goal seemed to awaken the sleeping Swedes, who began to press and attack with great confidence.
With the Spaniards backpedaling, Sweden swarmed and notched the equalizer at the 34-minute mark. Fredrik Stoor swung a deep cross into the box for Zlatan Ibrahimovic who shrugged off Spanish defender Sergio Ramos and coolly slipped the ball past goalkeeper Iker Casillas.
Controversy marred the final moments of the first half. Villa was flattened by Johan Elmander on a high cross played into the box, but the referee waved play on and did not award the Spanish a penalty shot.
Ibrahimovic, who entered the game nursing a knee injury, was replaced at half time by Markus Rosenberg, but it was Spain who carved out scoring chances. Torres broke free of his defensive marker inside the penalty area, but dragged his shot wide.
Mayhem ensued inside the Swedish box just moments later. Silva hit a shot that Andreas Isaksson stopped, and the Sweden goalkeeper quickly recovered to parry away Villa's rebound attempt and then made a brave save to deny Torres.
Isaksson came up big again when he dove to the ground and superbly tipped away a 30-yard blast off the foot of Spain's Marcos Senna.
Sweden nearly delivered a sucker-punch late in the game when Petter Hansson headed a cross into the six-yard box, but veteran striker Henrik Larsson couldn't connect on it and the chance went begging.
It was a chance Sweden rued missing, as Villa's late goal handed the Swedes their first loss of the tournament.
"We're happy. We had many chances in the second half and we managed (to score)," Aragones said. "In the second half, we went out looking for the goal and things worked out.
"We were the boss of the ball in the second half. I think definitely think that Spain played better from that point."
IMPACT PLAYERS
Spain — David Villa: The Valenica forward won the game for Spain with his dramatic goal in injury time.
Sweden — Andreas Isaksson: The Swedish goalkeeper made a number of big saves to keep his team in the game.
With files from Associated Press
