Sweden captain Fredrik Ljungberg has enough experience to know when he is facing first class opposition but he made it very clear that his admiration for Spain will not take the place of ambition when the top two in Uefa Euro 2008 face off in Innsbruck.

The 31 year old west ham united midfielder did not have to play twice against Spain in qualifying to be aware of the strengths of Luis Aragones‘ team. Although Ljungberg has great respect for Spain, he is pretty confident about winning. Ljungberg who played an important part in Sweden’s 2-0 victory over Greece after recovering from a late season rib injury told media that Spain are a great side and their respect for them is growing day by day. He also added that it is a big challenge to defeat them, partly because they play with a style which is similar to the one developed at Arsenal.

The two teams who first met way back in the 1920 Olympics are daring to go at each other but there has been a lot of talk whether, Sweden with a slightly older team have to rotate their squad. Ljungberg is completely against this idea and believes resting some key players would be an unnecessary risk.

A win for Spain would fire them into the knockout rounds.