Greece, defending their European Championship title, stifled Lagerback's men until Ibrahimovic smashed an effort into the top corner with 23 minutes left at Stadion Wals-Siezenheim.

"It was very good play before and the conclusion was world-class," Lagerback said. "It was beautiful and wonderful to see."

Ibrahimovic, who had not scored for his country since October 2005, added: "I got the ball and just shot, I saw the opening and went for it."

He then came off to protect his recent knee injury and Petter Hansson bundled in to seal the 2-0 win.

"The players did an excellent job," Lagerback added. "They are a tough team to play against. Physically they work very hard, they move their line forward and we worked hard on that so it's fantastic to win, particularly with the way we played, it was a 100% deserved victory."

The only negative aspect of the night was an injury to Christian Wilhelmsson which will now be assessed.

"It was a difficult game and we did a fantastic job," Ibrahimovic added. "We worked and were intelligent with our passes. We didn't let them play their own game and pressed them.

"It wasn't an easy game for the strikers as they had three good centre-backs and changed their tactic from four in defence."

Greece coach Otto Rehhagel is expected to be criticised for playing five defenders.

"I did what I thought was right," he said. "But if we play like that we won't win (the tournament) again."

He added: "We played well in the first half but unfortunately some players didn't play to the level I expected them to. Unfortunately it wasn't enough against a compact Sweden team.

"I didn't want my defenders to keep the ball at the back for an extended period of time, I didn't want them to do that.

"We still had the opportunity to win after half-time but we have to admit Sweden won the tackles and had the upper hand. They simply played too quickly and our midfield play took too long."