There are three more matches at Euro 2020 on Friday and the action begins in Group E where two sides who picked up points in their opening game meet when Sweden take on Slovakia in a big game in St Petersburg.
Sweden held Spain in their starter and will now look to get to work on their group campaign while Slovakia upset Poland and know if they can pick up another point in either of their last two matches they will be safely through to the next stage.
Where to watch
This match is being shown live in full on BBC1 for us in the UK. The short build-up begins at 1.45pm and the match kicks off at 2pm.
Sweden
There was a lot of criticism about the approach of Sweden in their opening match against Spain. I understand it because it wasn’t exactly the purest example of the beautiful game but their argument will be that it worked and actually had Marcus Berg not bungled a glorious chance in the second half Swedem might even have won the game. Playing like that against Spain is one thing but there is no way they will get away with playing like it against Slovakia.
To be fair to them I don’t think they will even try playing that way. We saw glimpses of what they can do in attacking areas in that Spain game and with the likes of Emil Forsberg, Marcus Berg and Alexander Isak in attacking areas they certainly don’t lack for firepower. We know that Sweden are a strong defensive unit so if they can get those attacking players into the game more they will feel that they can come away with a win here and pretty much assure themselves of a place in the knockout stages.
Slovakia
There weren’t many who were giving Slovakia a chance of doing anything positive in this tournament but they have already surprised plenty with their win over Poland in the first game. It should be said that Poland seem to have this mental block when it comes to tournament football and that they largely shot themselves in the foot, but Slovakia deserve credit for making the most of the opportunity that came their way and for holding on for the win.
You would imagine they will adopt the same tactics here where they sit back and soak up pressure and then look to spring a surprise on Sweden but I don’t see Sweden committing too much so they might have to come up with something different. The other thing that goes against Slovakia in this match is that their star man Marek Hamsik has played in Sweden all season so the Swedish coaching staff will have had ample chance to scout his strengths.
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Team News
Sweden are expecting to have midfielders Dejan Kulusevski and Mattias Svanberg available to them here after they have returned negative tests having missed the opening game due to testing positive for Covid-19. Mikael Lustig went off against Spain and isn’t likely to be fit here.
Slovakia were without forward Ivan Schranz in their win over Poland earlier in the week. He had a thigh injury and it looks like he is unavailable here too so it might be that the underdogs go in with an unchanged side here.
Betting
I like Sweden in this match. I don’t think Slovakia match up very well to them and I really don’t like sides who look to soak up pressure in these first matches of the day when conditions are so energy zapping. I’m not saying I expect a classic here because I don’t but I expect Sweden to play a lot more with the ball and they have the class in the centre of the pitch and the quality up top to do what Poland didn’t do and get in front of Slovakia and make them change their game. Sweden are a better side than they are given credit for and more importantly they are better than Slovakia and I think that will be represented by the final score.
I’ll also have a small play on Alexander Isak to score anytime in this match. I was impressed with the Real Sociedad forward against Spain. He looks a real unit who can handle himself against this strong Slovakia defencebut with the movement to get away from the defenders as well. He can use some trickery in the box to create a bit of space and there are enough players to feed him with chances in this Sweden side. I’m surprised you can get 2/1 on him to score in this game but I’m happy to take it.
Tips
Back Sweden to beat Slovakia for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
Back them here:
Back A.Isak to score anytime for a 1/10 stake at 3.00 with BetVictor
Back him here:
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