Like the IFK Goteborg side that ventured deep into the UEFA Cup 38 years ago, Djurgarden will have ambitions of not just reaching the final, but of lifting the trophy, too. Yet the task ahead of them is an unenviable one - tomorrow night, they welcome Chelsea to the 3Arena for the first of two legs.
The Blues, whose budget and squad depth have dwarfed every opponent they have faced in Europe’s third-tier competition this season, won all six League Phase matches at a canter before seeing off FC Copenhagen and Legia Warsaw in the knockout rounds.
A win over two legs for Jani Honkavaara’s injury-plagued squad would be a huge upset, but his side can take heart not only from the fact Chelsea are beatable - they lost the second leg of their quarter-final in Poland, albeit after a comfortable first leg victory at Stamford Bridge - but also the fact that Swedish sides have a history of getting results against English opponents in UEFA matches.
Tottenham Hotspur’s 3-0 win over Elfsborg in the UEFA Europa League (UEL) earlier this season was the 19th win for English clubs in such fixtures, but 12 draws and five wins for Swedish sides in 36 meetings prove they are never a foregone conclusion.
Despite a rich European history, none of those matches featured Djurgarden, whose only prior experience against English opponents was an Inter-Cities Fairs Cup first-round tie with Manchester United in 1964. Though they drew the home leg 1-1, Djurgarden were on the end of a 6-1 hammering in the return match at Old Trafford.
On Flashscore, we are going to take a look back at five of the most memorable of the 36 UEFA ties from down the years, some of which the Iron Stoves can take real inspiration from ahead of the first Anglo-Swedish clash in the UECL.
5. Arsenal 1-2 Ostersund - 2017/18 UEFA Europa League - round of 32, second leg
We kick things off the list with the last time a Swedish club got the better of an English side over 90 minutes.
West Ham United manager Graham Potter may not be having the best time in London at the moment, but that was not the case in early 2018 when he was making a name for himself in England.
Having become Ostersund manager in 2011, he took the club from the Swedish fourth tier to the Allsvenskan in four years, and a Svenska Cupen triumph in 2017 guaranteed a place in the 2017/18 UEL.
They beat Galatasaray in qualification, before finishing second in a group containing Athletic Club and Hertha Berlin to become the first Swedish side to progress from a UEL group, setting up a meeting with Arsenal in the round of 32.
Arsene Wenger’s side were expected to breeze through, and that’s how things were panning out in the first leg - Nacho Monreal, Mesut Ozil and a Sotirios Papagiannopoulos own goal meant Arsenal left Jamtkraft Arena with a 3-0 win and the chance to run up a cricket score in the second leg.
But the Gunners were in for a shock - Ostersund took the lead midway through the first half through Hosam Aiesh’s deflected strike. 70 seconds later, Ken Sema struck powerfully past David Ospina to put the Swedish minnows 2-0 up on the night, and the tie was well and truly on.
A Sead Kolasinac goal early in the second half killed off the tie as Ostersund fell just short of a miracle comeback, but a 2-1 win over 90 minutes at the Emirates Stadium was perhaps the highpoint of the club’s rapid rise, and a perfect way to bookend the Potter era, before he joined Swansea City later that year.
4. Chelsea 3-0 Malmo - 2018/19 UEFA Europa League, round of 32, second leg
Djurgarden fans, you might want to look away now. Chelsea’s record against Swedish clubs is near-perfect, including a win at Stamford Bridge, which spurred them on to success.
A year on from Ostersund’s win, there was no joy in London for Malmo, who were still in the tie after a 2-1 first leg loss in Sweden.
In the return match, it took Chelsea until the second half to win the tie, as Olivier Giroud, Ross Barkley and Callum Hudson-Odoi all found the net.
While the win may not appear to be the most memorable, it was key in setting the Blues’ run to the Final in motion - they saw off Dynamo Kyiv, Slavia Prague and Eintracht Frankfurt before thrashing Arsenal 4-1 in the final in Baku and winning a second UEL title.
3. Blackburn Rovers 0-1 Trelleborg - 1994/95 UEFA Cup, first round, first leg
Who were the first team to beat Blackburn Rovers home or away in the season they won the Premier League title? That’s right - not including the Charity Shield - it was Trelleborg.
The team from a town of 40,000 people enjoyed their glory days in the early to mid-1990s, finishing as high as third in the Allsvenskan. In 1994, they were expected to be no match for free-spending Blackburn, a team also basking in a golden period under Kenny Dalglish.
Rovers were unbeaten over their first five league games when the minnows turned up at Ewood Park, but were left stunned when Fredrik Sandell raced away from the home defence and rolled the ball home with 18 minutes to play.
Perhaps more impressively, Joachim Karlsson equalised both times after Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton had put Blackburn ahead twice in the second leg, to draw 2-2 at Vangavallen and secure a 3-2 aggregate win.
Trelleborg’s only European season to date ended in the next round, going down 1-0 on aggregate to Lazio.
2. IFK Goteborg 3-1 Manchester United - 1994/95 UEFA Champions League, group stage
Manchester United’s early forays into Europe under Sir Alex Ferguson were not their best performances of the 1990s, remembered for little more than a Peter Schmeichel consolation goal and the 'Welcome to Hell' match away to Galatasaray in 1993.
A year later, their 'hell' was the chillier setting of Gothenburg, where a costly loss played a large part in a group-stage exit for the Red Devils.
Goteborg were supposed to be the whipping boys in a group that also featured Galatasaray and Barcelona, but after a 4-2 loss at Old Trafford, they beat both the Spanish and Turkish sides at home, while United had only picked up a point apiece against the same sides.
A 4-0 thrashing at the Camp Nou, as IFK picked up another three points in Istanbul, meant all the pressure was on United to get a result at Gamla Ullevi.
The visitors looked to have got a foothold when a trademark Mark Hughes volley cancelled out the opener from future United winger Jesper Blomqvist, only for Magnus Erlingmark to restore the lead seconds later, with Blomqvist again the architect.
Pontus Kamark sealed the 3-1 win from the penalty spot, as Goteborg went on to top the group, before only losing to Bayern Munich on away goals in the quarter-finals, the last time a Swedish club reached the last eight of a UEFA competition until Djurgarden this year.
United finished third in the group, and it would take another four seasons - with Blomqvist in the starting XI - for them to lift the UEFA Champions League (UCL) title.
1. Nottingham Forest 1-0 Malmo - 1978/79 European Cup, final
There can only be one contender for the number one spot in this list - the one and only time England and Sweden were represented in European football’s biggest club match.
It remains the only time a Swedish club has reached the European Cup or UCL Final, while Nottingham Forest’s progression ensured it was a meeting between two Final debutants at Munich’s Olympiastadion.
Brian Clough’s Forest had shocked English football by winning the league title a year after winning promotion from the second tier, then made the rest of Europe take notice by knocking reigning European champions Liverpool out in the first round. They then beat AEK Athens, Grasshoppers and FC Koln to reach the Final.
Malmo were managed by Englishman Bob Houghton, who was just 31 at the time. He guided his side to wins over Monaco, Dynamo Kyiv, Wisla Krakow and Austria Wien - keeping six clean sheets in eight matches - to take their place in the showpiece game.
The match itself was not a classic; both sides were missing key players, which forced Malmo to be even more defensive than usual. But, on this occasion, they could not profit from their rigidity.
The only goal arrived on the stroke of half-time, when John Robertson drove down the left wing, and his cross was met at the far post by Trevor Francis, who headed it into the roof of the net.
Francis, the first £1 million signing, was not allowed to play any part of Forest’s run to the final, as UEFA rules stipulated he could not feature until three months after his arrival at the City Ground. The final in Munich was, in fact, Francis’ first ever European appearance.
Forest backed up their 1979 triumph by winning the trophy again in 1980, beating Oster along the way and playing their part in a period of dominance that saw the trophy go to England seven times in eight years.
Follow the UEFA Conference League semi-finals on Flashscore.