Postcard from Gothenburg: Swedes wear tactics on sleeve

It rains so much in Gothenburg that a couple of years ago the whole place decided to just concede defeat and start shaping itself to accommodate the elements.

To mark the city's 400th anniversary in 2021, a project called 'Rain Gothenburg' was launched.

Lilypad-and-drainpipe-stacked playgrounds were built; poems were engraved into manhole covers; and in one of the city's main squares, polar bear footprints were drawn with special paint so that they only appear when the heavens open.

The Swedes like to think outside the box.

Perhaps that's why they have taken the unusual step of laying out a blueprint of how to beat their excellent women's football team on their new jersey, which will be worn at this summer's Euros.

Printed on the shirt itself are helpful nuggets such as: "Sweden is one of the fastest-playing teams in the world and also one of the very best at counter-attacking - do everything you can to reclaim the ball once you lose it, try to force the Swedish players down the sidelines and close them down aggressively."

Refreshing transparency, shameless marketing, or misguided arrogance?

"I think everybody knows these things," Sweden manager Peter Gerhardsson (above) told a press conference on Monday.

"If they don't know it, buy the shirt! Every country is well scouted on teams and players and stuff like that."

Gerhardsson talked up the humility of his world No 2-ranked players - "they're a very good group and they're very good human beings" - but he was frank in his dislike of the 'underdog tag'. He wants his side to be favourites.

"I don't like to be the underdog. I don't like to talk about... that you like to be the underdog. You like to be winners. When you win and you are starting something, it's more (down to) something