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Draw With England Puts Sweden in 2nd Round of World Cup

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Sweden will play in the second round of the World Cup football tournament in Germany thanks to a 2-2 draw with England in a Group B match.

Henrik Larsson tapped in the tying goal in the 90th minute Tuesday off a bouncing throw-in in Cologne to give Sweden a second place finish in the group behind England. Trinidad and Tobago needed a win to advance from the group and a loss by Sweden. But neither happened as the Caribbean team lost to Paraguay, 2-0, in Kaiserslautern.

England finished at the top of the group and will now face Ecuador in the second round in Stuttgart on Sunday. Sweden will face Group A winner Germany in Munich on Saturday.

Group A had already been settled before the last of the opening round games. Host Germany defeated Ecuador, 3-0, in Berlin. Poland came back to beat Costa Rica, 2-1, in Hanover.

German Miroslav Klose scored two first-half goals and Lukas Podolski scored in the 57th minute. Costa Rica opened the scoring in the other Group A match when Ronald Gomez scored in the 25th minute. But Bartosz Bosacki answered with goals in the 33rd and 66th minutes to give Poland the victory.

Not much remains to be determined from Groups C and D on Wednesday. Argentina and the Netherlands are guaranteed a second round berth. With six points each, they will face each other for the Group C title. Ivory Coast and Serbia and Montenegro have already been eliminated and play in the other game.

Angola has an outside chance of advancing from Group D. The African team will need some goals and a win over last place Iran while hoping Portugal beats Mexico. Portugal has already advanced with six points, Mexico has four while Angola has one. Iran has been eliminated with no points so far.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.
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