Zlatan Ibrahimovic finds himself at the centre of a spat that has broke out within the Sweden camp following their disappointing defeat at the hands of Ukraine in their opening match of Euro 2012.
The Swedes suffered a 2-1 reverse against the tournament co-hosts Ukraine on Monday, courtesy of an Andriy Shevchenko double.
During the half-time team-talk, Zlatan Ibrahimovic had a heated exchange of words with his strike partner Markus Rosenberg.
“We said that we had to play more football. We were playing with too many long balls forward and the midfield did not offer any support to the strikers. It was almost two against five,” says Rosenberg.
“Zlatan would get the ball and try to pass it to me, but there was an ocean between me and Zlatan. It is not only our football.”
It has also been reported that after their post-match jogging, the AC Milan striker was upset that several players went to the stands to meet their wives.
This set of events come in the wake of scathing comments made by head coach Erik Hamren when assessing his sides performance during their opening fixture.
"We were cowards in the first half and should have done more. I'm not happy with the team, I was expecting more,” he told reporters.
"We didn't show the courage we were supposed to. Only five or six players did. We all need all the players doing that.
"We're not reaching the level we want to and that's my responsibility as a coach [to make sure we do].”
Sweden now look ahead to their next game which is against England on Friday, a match they realistically have to win to have any hopes of progressing from Group D.
Hamren added, "The players do want it very much, but we should have scored with the three last chances we had.
"I'm not sure the Ukraine were much better in the first half either, it was very nervous and there were a lot of mistakes from both teams.
"We have to regroup together. We're not happy about this because we were pushing for a better result. We have a lot to work on and discuss."
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