Eder scored the decisive goal in the 88th minute as Italy edged past Sweden 1-0 to progress through to the last 16 of Euro 2016 at the Stadium municipal in Toulouse, France, on Friday.
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With Italy now able to plot their run in the knockout stages, Belgium and Republic of Ireland will hope to seize the initiative to join them when they meet in Bordeaux on Saturday.
Italy had few chances throughout the match, although it had threatened minutes before Eder’s goal when Marco Parolo headed Emanuele Giaccherini’s cross off the crossbar.
Compared with their 1-1 draw with the Republic of Ireland, Swedish coach Erik Hamrén went with John Guidetti up front, a year after his goal against Italy at the U21 EURO.
Italy had been praised for their unity and work rate in their opening win over Belgium, but appeared to have no answer to Sweden’s organised rearguard until Eder’s late intervention.
But with just two minutes of normal time remaining, Eder latched onto substitute Simone Zaza’s flick on, leaving Andreas Granqvist on his backside before firing into the far corner.
But the man who looks set to join Manchester United struggled against the notoriously tight Italian defence, and failed again in his bid to become the first player to score in four successive European Championship finals. “We’re starting to get the respect very few people gave us”, he said.
“We have to do better offense if we are to win the game”, Hamren said.
“We knew that Ibrahimovic was the number one enemy”, said Andrea Barzagli, a key part of the Italy defence which has not conceded so far this tournament.
Their game has always contained a strong pragmatic streak and this was an occasion to savour the result, rather than the match.
Ibrahimovic enjoyed plenty of fruitful afternoons against Italian defenders during his time in Serie A, but this wasn’t one of them. “We defended well and we really succeeded in closing down Italy’s game, but it was only towards the end of the game that we lost a bit of concentration”.
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Veteran Italy captain Gianluigi Buffon had little to do in goal until he dived to collect Kim Kallstrom s curling shot, and the Juventus keeper was happy to see Martin Olsson s drive whistle past the post soon after. “Many were even doubting us going through and the fact we’re into the last 16 after just two games is a huge satisfaction”.
