Grip to spy on the Swedes

Tord Grip and Dave Sexton will travel to Tokyo tomorrow to watch Sweden face Japan in a warm-up match.

Grip, Sven-Goran Eriksson's assistant, and chief scout Sexton, will compile a dossier on the Swedes - England's opening game opponents - and then report back to Eriksson.

Meanwhile, Sweden's Freddie Ljungberg was today criticised by a former World Cup star as pictures of his throat-grabbing retaliation on a team-mate were being flashed around the world.

Glenn Stromberg, a member of Sweden's 1990 World Cup team, believes the fall-out from the training incident, which saw the Arsenal midfielder retaliate wildly after a bad challenge by Aston Villa's Olof Mellberg, could still have a lasting effect on their preparations for the opening game against England.

Stromberg said: "If Ljungberg got angry after Mellberg's bad tackle, he shouldn't have started to fight. Do it fairly and give Mellberg what he deserves in another tackle."

Though both players and the Swedish camp have been trying to play down the incident, Stromberg believes there is still bad blood between the pair. He said: "They don't like each other. This is something that the bosses must sort out."