EURO 2016 Italy booked their ticket to the knock-out stage of Euro 2016 on Friday by beating Sweden 1-0 thanks to Eder’s late goal.

Eder gave Italy the winner in the 88th minute to put the Azzurri onto six points and onto the knock-out stage for the fourth time in the last five European Championships.

It was the 11th goal of the 28 scored thus far at Euro 2016 to fall in the 87th minute or later.

Sweden now face an uphill battle to get out of the group stage with just one point. The Swedes have bowed out before the KO stage in the last two Euros and three of the last four.

Sweden coach Erik Hamren was forced to reshape his backline with Erik Johansson replacing injured Mikael Lustig. The coach also further re-worked his right side with Albin Ekdal playing for Oscar Lewicki.

Hamren also aligned John Guidetti next to Zlatan Ibrahimovic instead Marcus Berg.

Italian coach Antonio Conte’s only switch was Roma’s Alessandro Florenzi coming on for Manchester United’s Matteo Darmian.

The Swedes sent a ball into the box in the third minute which got close to Ibrahimovic but Giorgio Chiellini cleared the danger.

That proved to be the closest Hamren’s men would get to the goal in the first half as Italy’s defence did not allow a single shot on goal in the first 45 minutes.

But Italy did not trouble Sweden keeper Andreas Isaksson in the first half either, managing just one shot on goal as Sweden had 60 percent possession.

Both teams came out of the break with more willingness to risk something offensively. But neither could really threaten the other team for a while with Sweden still controlling the ball.

Conte had seen enough at the hour mark and brought swapped forwards with Juventus’ Simone Zaza replacing Graziano Pelle.

The Italians worked harder to push forward down the right side and Antonio Candreva sent in a low cross in the 64th minute, but Isaksson was well positioned at the near upright.

The Swedes looked poised to score with 18 minutes left with a cross to the far right post where Ibrahimovic put the ball over the bar from a metre out but was also flagged for offside.

Italy were just centimetres from pulling ahead in the 82nd minute with Emanuele Gianccherini sending a nice pass from the left side to Marco Parolo, but the Lazio midfielder’s header from six yards out hit the crossbar.

The Italians finally broke through in the 88th minute off a throw-in from Chiellini which Zaza headed on to Eder, who worked his way through three defenders and blasted past Isaksson for the goal.

Sweden were calling for a penalty four minutes into stoppage time as two Swedes were surrounded and in contact with three Italian defenders. But the referee refused to point to the spot.

- dpa