In an international friendly played at Cesena, a second string Italy side beat Sweden 1-0, with the help of the only goal scored by the centre-back Giorgio Chiellini. The world champions found it very hard to impose themselves on their disciplined opponents, who were also playing without their star player Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Sweden having already been ousted from World Cup qualification failed to make any impressions and seemed very unlikely to make a come back as a side that had glorious 1990s.
