England vs Sweden : A True Test

Fresh from their surprise 1-0 victory over the world champions, England take on Sweden tonight in what could prove to be a sterner test than they had on Saturday. There was little expectation on England to beat the Spanish, which allowed them to play a compact and defensive game, even though they were the home side. Tonight’s game is completely different, smarting from a victory over the world champions, expectations will be as high as ever, with public demand calling for a more expansive and attacking game.

 Sweden are a good footballing team and not to be easily underestimated with individual players who can hurt this England side, most notably Zlatan Ibrahimovic (who has 5 goals in 7 games in Serie A this season) and proved this with their own surprise victory in their last competitive game, after beating the Netherlands 3-2 at home in a Euro 2012 qualification match and without the help of their talisman Ibrahimovic, who should be back for tonight’s game.

Personally, I was pleased with England’s performance against Spain. It was a great show of defensive capabilities and discipline, which has proven to work against teams like Spain or Barcelona, most notably the last team to knock Barcelona out of the Champions League, Inter Milan, who played in a similar way to England and were well received back in Italy. It also showed adaptability, to the situation and the opponents which is something that is necessary if England are going to win a major tournament. But tonight England will be under pressure to take the game to a decent Swedish side and this could lead to England’s undoing.

Possible Starting line-ups:

England: (4-4-2) Hart, Walker, Terry(c), Cahill, Baines, Walcott, Rodwell, Barry, Downing, Zamora, Sturridge

Sweden: (4-3-3) Wiland, Mellberg, Safari, Olsson, Lustig, Svensson, Kallstrom, Larsson, Bajrami, Ibrahimovic(c), Elmander.

Prediction: England (Sturridge 2) 2 – 2 Sweden (Ibrahimovic, Seb Larsson)