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In a repeat of the European Championship groups, Sweden and Spain will face off again on Thursday night after they played out a goalless draw in their opening group game of the summer.
While the Swedes pipped the Spaniards to top spot, Spain actually had the more convincing run in the end, only failing to make the final on penalties having gone down to eventual winners Italy.
Both these sides have made strong starts, but it’s Sweden who have the upper hand at the moment with a 100% record from their two outings over Georgia and Kosovo, but this will be a much sterner challenge for them.
Luis Enrique’s men have also had an unbeaten start to life, with wins over Georgia and Kosovo as well, although those did come having drawn their opener with Greece.
While Spain were known for their output over the summer, twice managing to net five in a game, they didn’t manage to score against this resolute Sweden defence, and we’d be surprised if they managed to run riot on Thursday too.
Indeed, Sweden are now unbeaten over 90 minutes in their last nine outings, winning seven of them and managing to keep six clean sheets in that run too.
Under 2.5 Goals
The Iberian side look to be quite hit and miss, and it’s that unpredictability that makes them so dangerous.
While in eight of their last 21 games they’ve managed to net three or more, averaging 4.9 goals across those games, they’ve also only scored one or fewer in 12 of them, and we’d expect after a bit of a break from the Euros that there may be some rustiness in front of goal.
Despite undoubtedly being the more dominant footballing nation, Spain have only won five of 11 previous head-to-heads with Sweden, with each of the last two ending all square and both seeing under 2.5 goals land.
That same unders outcome has landed in 11 of Spain’s last 17 matches, as it comes to pass that if they don’t run away with the encounter, it’s often a very low scoring and tense affair.
The same can be said in six of Sweden’s last nine games, and that looks the way to go on this occasion, especially with no notable world-class forwards for either side to cause real discomfort to their opposition backline.
What’s more, in these early stages of the group, neither side will want to lose this while a draw wouldn’t be the worst result for either, and those circumstances often bring out dull affairs.
PREDICTION:
UNDER 2.5 GOALS
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