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Aron Wright - June 22, 2018
Germany vs Sweden
World Cup 2018 Group F
Date: Saturday, 23 June 2018
Kick-off at 19:00 UK/ 20:00 CET
Venue: Fisht Olympic Stadium (Sochi).
The FIFA World Cup 2018 have seen some surprises, but nothing bigger than Germany’s defeat to Mexico in the Group F opener. This leaves the Mannschaft a mountain to climb with their round 2 opponent Sweden bagging three points against South Korea the very next day.
On the flipside, it has been a night that the Mexicans came with a plan and executed it perfectly. Low’s men were caught on the wrong foot by swift counter attacks and eventually conceding a goal close to the first half.
The final score-line could have been embarrassing if Mexico were sharp in front of goal as they did have plenty of clear cut chances to kill off the game. Germany had at least 30 attempts on goal, but I can hardly remember one that could have seriously tested Ochoa.
This is rather a wakeup call for the European giants who were on a hot streak in competitive games.
Germany had never lost an opening game of the World Cup since 1982. Also, this is their first defeat at the competition since the semifinal loss to Spain at this same competition back in 2010.
Bad news for the Germans is that the defending champions had crashed out of the group stage of the competition in three of the last four edition. Good news is that, Spain who lost their opening group game by a similar margin to Switzerland went on to lift the trophy.
Sweden on the other hand put themselves in a good position to qualify for the knockout stage, at least as the second placed team from the group.
The Swedes dominated the game against the weakest team in the group, but their finishing was once again disappointing. They came to the World Cup after failing to score in three consecutive warm-up games and still needed a penalty to break the dead lock. This was their first goal in over 340 minutes of football.
Neuer – Hector, Boateng, Hummels, Kimmich – Khedira, Kroos – Draxler, Ozil, Muller – Werner.
Olsen – Lustig, Granqvist, Lindelof, Augustinsson – Larsson, Ekdal, Forsberg, Claesson – Berg, Toivonen.
Germany are unbeaten in the last 11 meetings with Sweden, 7 wins and 4 draws.
Their most recent meeting was in 2014 World Cup qualifiers. Both legs were thrillers, the first of which saw a remarkable comeback from Sweden to level 4-4 at full-time from 4 goals down. The second leg also saw 8 goals, Germany winning it 5-3.
Germany vs Sweden h2h at FIFA World Cup
The teams met 4 times at the World Cup, Germany won thrice and Sweden once.
If you look at the form guide, Germany have won just one of their last 7 games, 6 of them in friendlies. This is often the case with them and they are underperformers in friendlies and a totally different proportion when it comes to major tournaments.
Therefore, one cannot rule out Germany from the World Cup, despite the lackluster performance in the opening game. This is a team that made it from the group phase in each of their 16 previous appearances at the World Cup and some minor tweaks upfront will see them come to life.
Sweden are too defensive and not as fast as Mexico on the counter. On top of that, their inability to finish off scoring chances were evident in the win against South Korea. They still remain without a goal in 430 minutes of open play.
Therefore, do not expect another surprise result on Saturday, but bank on Muller and company to get back to winning ways.
Germany vs Sweden Predictions from Statistical Analysis, ©LeagueLane®
