Sweden will ‘need more than just Ibrahimovic'

As the countdown to Euro 2012 begins, Swedish legend Henrik Larsson has called on his old national teammates not to over-rely on the services of star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Speaking exclusively to Gulf News on the sidelines of AC Milan training at Al Ahli's Rashid Stadium on Sunday night, Larsson, who is holidaying in Dubai, suggested others in Erik Hamren's team also needed to prove their worth ahead of the upcoming competition. Sweden will face Ukraine, England and France in Group D of the June 8 to July 1 tournament, which they qualified for when finishing second in their group behind Holland, thanks to five goals from AC Milan striker Ibrahimovic. Larsson said: "It's a tough group for them [Sweden], but hopefully they are going to do well. "It's very important that Ibrahim is going to be on form but also the rest of the team too, because its not going to take one player — it's impossible for him to do it all by himself. All the players will need to be in good nick when the tournament starts. Self belief "It's always difficult [for Sweden] but you have to believe that you can do it. Once the players are there, they are going to have to have the belief that they can do something, otherwise there's no point in them going." Ibrahimovic said: "I try to win everything I play for. But it's difficult because Sweden is a small country. We're happy that we made it to the World Cup and that we made it to the Europe Championships, but what happens, happens. "If you win it, it will become a miracle, and if you don't win, it won't be a miracle. We have the mentality there to win and do our best but we'll see what happens. "The favourites have to be Spain, Holland and Italy. But our team goes into the Euros to take it one game at a time. It's not easy our group. We're very happy to have made it there but what happens there, happens." Ibrahimovic said of Larsson, who was recently voted ahead of the Milan player in a poll for Sweden's best footballer: "It was fantastic to play with Henrik and I'm very happy for Sweden that they had a player like him. It's the choice of others to decide who is best and for me he's the right choice for sure. "I learnt a lot from him and it was a big honour to play alongside him and learn so much. When I joined the national team he was the big player at the time so I followed him and learnt from him."