Soccer/Italy - 1 Sweden - 1: Delete is too small a word for it. The boffins who slave for Bill Gates need to come up with a button which expresses the sensation of ripping a sheet of paper from a sturdy old typewriter, screwing that piece of paper into a ball and pegging it in frustration at a wastepaper basket.

That is what happened in the hearts of a thousand football journalists in Porto last night when Zlatan Ibrahimovich scored a freakish equaliser which meant death by deletion for a thousand homilies on the dangers of letting the Italians take a one-nil lead on you.

If the goal was no more than the Swedes deserved it was still a surprise. Italian mothers judge the worth of their sons on their ability to be mean with a narrow lead. There is no prouder parent than those who hear catenaccio uttered as their infant's first word. Italy don't lose leads.

So now it goes to the death. The Swedes and the Danes meeting in what might have been the most congenial of derbies - before they worked out that a draw might not be enough for them both because the Italians play Bulgaria knowing that they must win by more than two goals. Given that the hapless Bulgars have conceded seven in two games, that doesn't seem that momentous a task but the Italians will undertake it without Frabcesco Totti, Fabio Cannavaro and Gennaro Gattuso.

Strange game. Somewhere in the Swedish imagination when they thought about how this match would unfold they must have envisaged themselves going a goal down. Something about their demeanour in the first half suggested that they couldn't quite picture themselves overwhelming the Italians.

They were frustrating to watch. Roy Keane once complained (no, really) of his countrymen that, win or lose there was a tendency to say, we're the Irish, let's have a party. The Swedes played like a team who have a tendency to say, win or lose let's have an invigorating massage and then a mutually supportive discussion. They lacked the bit of devil to go with their ability.

One longed for them to seize the initiative and tear into the Italians, running at them, peppering them with shots, making them doubt themselves. Instead they played with caution and conservatism waiting for the Italians to bloody their noses.

The Italians, denied - following his great expectorations episode - the services of Totti opted for a little creativity in the form of Antonio Cassano up front and a little divilment in the form of the tough ballwinning Calabrian, Gattusso in the middle.

They seemed to have what it took and early on Andreas Isaksson was required to make the first of many saves when Cassano had a shot and then Christian Vieri followed up with another.

There were warning signs from early on that the Swedes wouldn't be well served by drawing the Italians out. Christian Panucci skipped up and down his right wing with impunity. Vieri rose virtually unchallenged for a series of albeit lamentable headers, while down the other end Henrik Larsson was beginning to appreciating that Cannavaro and Alessandro Nesta were a cut above what he might encounter on a Saturday afternoon at Motherwell.

The Italians looked at times mistrustful of the space they were being given. On 18 minutes Panucci again fed Cassano who this time dinked a little cross for Vieri to (inevitably already) miss. The Swedes were still encouraging each other to tighten up when Gianluca Zambrotta came steaming down the opposite wing and found Alessandro del Piero who skimmed the post with his wide.

So it went. Freddie Ljungberg and Ibrahimovich combined occasionally up front for Sweden and Larsson began drifting wide in search of ball which wasn't quite coming form the overwhelmed Swedish midfield.

The shadow play lasted until the thirty seventh minute when Panucci continuing his experiments on Edman's psyche played the cheekiest of crosses which found the Swedish defence stepping one way and three Italian attackers stepping the other way.

Cassano , deservedly was first in the queue for the glancing header to the net.

You would have thought that by then the Swedes would have learned their lesson. Not so. On the brink of half time Panucci and Cassano almost repeated the trick. As the teams headed for the tunnel the mood of the huge Swedish contingent in the ground wasn't lightened by the sight of Ibrahimovich merrily swapping his jersey with Panucci as Erik Edman trailed in behind the pair, getting his first good look at the Italian.

During the break the Swedes apparently decided that they would play harder in the second half. Their resolve was stiffened when Panucci crossed for Vieri to head wide. Even Vieri was going to score sometime if the Swedes didn't step things up.

They introduced Kim Kallstrom, bafflingly still not a first choice, for the struggling Anders Svensson and things began to get better. They improved still further with the arrival of Matias Jonson whose first shot was almost hooked into the Italian net by a despairing Cannavaro.

That chance imbued the Swedes with confidence. Larsson, suddenly much in evidence as the game opened up, fed Mattias Jonson minutes later and Buffon did wonderfully well to save a cracking shot.

Minutes later a Jonson header. Then Jakonsson rifled a shot into the side netting. The Swedish fury seemed to reach a crescendo and then fade at that point as they reminded themselves that the Italians don't surrender leads.

We nodded knowingly.

And then in the 85th minute the god of freakish things provided. Tobias Linderoth, then Jakonnssen then Marcus Allback and finally Ibrahimovich all got touches or kicks on the ball as it ping-ponged around the Italian area.

Buffon finally came charging out at Ibrahimovich who somehow hooked the ball upwards, where it described an odd arc before looping over the head of the hapless Vieri and into the Italian net.

A thousand index fingers pressed a thousand delete buttons and the Swedes gave thanks in the Porto night. Good stuff.

Afterwards, Italy coach Giovanni Trapattoni said: "We gave everything we had, played well and created a lot of chances, but their goalkeeper was superb. In the second half we got tired and they were able to push up on the wings. When they scored I thought there might have been a foul on Zambrotta."

Asked about Italy's chances in their next match against Bulgaria, Trapattoni said: "If we play like that I think we've got an excellent chance of winning, though of course it won't be a walk in the park."