Sweden and South Korea go at it on Monday June 18th at 8am Eastern at Nizhny Novgorod Stadium. In order to have the best chance possible at making the knockout round, Sweden and Mexico will hope to have big wins against Korea and control the damage in their games versus defending champ Germany, so with the Mexico/Germany game already played, Sweden will have a good idea of what kind of goal differential they need to win one of the top two spots to go on to the knockout round. These two countries have played each other on three different occasions, with Sweden winning once and the other two games ending in draws. The most recent contest was in 2005. Register today to enjoy the best odds for the Russia 2018 World Cup and receive great bonuses, also join our bracket contest to win amazing cash prizes.
South Korea
South Korea is the long shot to make it out of this group They will likely lose all of their games, including this one. They have been struggling as of late, and limped into the World Cup berth. They drew 0-0 with Jamaica in January of this year, and then lost both of their March friendly matches to Poland and Northern Ireland. In AFC qualifying, they finished 7 points behind the #1 seed Iran and yielded 10 goals, which was the second-worst total in the qualifying group. Still, they have a respectable history, having qualified for every World Cup tournament since 1990, being one of only six teams to accomplish such a feat. They had a magical run in 2002, when they co-hosted the tournament with Japan, making it all the way to the semi finals and finishing in fourth place. They are the most successful team from their region, having participated in more World Cups than any other AFC country with 10. While they only have two AFC cups to their name, they have been finalists on four occasions and finished in third place four other times in that tournament. Their all-time win/loss record in the World Cup is 5-9-17, putting them in 26th place among all countries, ahead of teams like Colombia, Croatia, Nigeria and Peru.
Sweden
Sweden may not be coming in as hot as Germany, or with as much pomp, but they have put together an impressive record over the last couple years as a team that beat odds and upset more talented teams. In the Euro 2016 Cup, they finished last in their group and the team rebounded by going 10-2-6 beating Portugal, France and Italy and drubbing Luxembourg 8-0. They also effectively eliminated Italy from World Cup Qualification in the second round, 2-game play-off, where they beat the Italians by an aggregate of 1-0. The real big news for the Swedes though is that their most famous player will not be part of their World Cup team. After a long period of uncertainty, Zlatan Ibrahimovic announced that he would not come out of retirement to be part of Sweden's 2018 World Cup run.
Match Overview
Sweden is a slight favorite in this game. Sweden has a much deeper pool of talent, and South Korea will be satisfied to play as defensive a game as possible and hoping that star forward Son Heung-min can muster a goal or two. The good news for the Koreans is that without Ibrahimovic, no player on the Swedish side matches the scoring power of Heung-min. If head coach Shin Tae-yong can develop a strategy that springs him free of the Swedish defense, South Korea has a chance However, as long as Sweden can neutralize the Tottenham forward, this game should be no problem for the Swedes. Defensemen Andreas Granqvist and Victor Lindelof will be responisble for keeping Heung-min off the scoreboard.
