Sweden have gone into half-time 0-0 against Paraguay in their Group B encounter in Berlin.

Three free-kicks in as many minutes from Sweden in the opening period underlined the South Americans' intention to defend hard, but Kim Kallstrom wasted two of them driving his set-pieces straight into the Paraguay wall.

Sweden had the majority of possession in the first-half, with Freddie Ljungberg having acres of space down the left.

His pass to Zlatan Ibrahimovic allowed the tall striker to lay in Henrik Larsson who failed to make a clean connection on his shot and the goalkeeper tidied up the loose ball easily.

As one would expect from two sides needing a win, the game was open and clear spaces were plentiful. Paraguay’s Nelson Valdez took advantage of some poor marking and Roque Santa Cruz's knock down allowed him a shot on goal, but neither side could find a breakthrough.

Valdez had a shot that he whacked well off-target, to the delight of the Swedes.

Christian Wilhelmsson and Freddie Ljungberg were given lods of space down the flanks, but couldn’t get the pass through to either Ibrahimovic or Larsson.

Nunez blasted a shot across goal in the 40th minute, which just needed a touch to be a goal, and on the break Sweden looked like scoring, but Zlatan Ibrahimovic had his tame shot easily saved by Aldo Bobadilla.

The game went into half-time 0-0, with Sweden looking the most likely to score, but neither side having carved any real chances.

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