On Tuesday July 3rd at 10am Eastern, Group F winner Sweden will face off against Switzerland, who advanced to the knockout stage of the World Cup after finishing second in Group E behind Brazil. This will be the 29th time these two countries have played one another, but only the first time at a World Cup. This will be one of the most even matchups at the round of 16, with Sweden holding a slight advantage according to our World Cup Betting odds. Sweden have advanced past this stage only once in their history, back in 1994 when they finished third. Switzerland meanwhile will be trying to beat Sweden for the first time since 1994. In the last three matches the teams have played since then, the Swiss have lost once and drawn twice. The last meeting was a 1-1 tie in 2002.
Sweden
Sweden quietly finished atop the Group F standings after beating Mexico 3-0 in the final game. At the beginning of the group stage, all of the attention was on Mexico, who upset Germany 1-0 in their first game and then dominated South Korea in their second match. Content to play in Mexico's shadow, Sweden beat South Korea in their first game before losing in the last seconds of their match against Germany. By the time the third day of matches for this group came around, Sweden found itself in second place thanks to a goal differential with Germany. However, Sweden put in their best performance to date at the World Cup and beat Mexico 3-0 guaranteeing their spot atop the standings after Germany lost another shocker to South Korea. Sweden has no standout players and relies on a team solidarity to win games defensively. Captain Andreas Granquist leads the team with 2 goals so far at the World Cup.
Switzerland
The Swiss started the group stage out with a powerful performance against Brazil, coming back from down one goal in the first half to tie against the heavily-favored South American squad. They then went on to win an emotional game against Serbia in which they again came back from an early goal, with Granit Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri each scoring in the second half to lead their team to victory. After those dramatic matches, Switzerland's third tilt was another thrill ride, as they needed only a tie against Costa Rica to advance, but Los Ticos came out firing, with several chances at net without a goal before Swiss midfielder Blerim Dzemaili broke the stalemate. Kendall Watson tied the game 1-1 early in the second half before the teams again traded goals in the final two minutes, with Costa Rica getting the final equalizer on a penalty kick by Yann Sommer.
Match Overview
There will be several key players suspended for this game due to yellow cards; For Switzerland, Stephan Lichtsteiner and Fabian Schar are ruled out, and for Sweden, Sebastian Larsson will not be available. Switzerland is a little more hurt by the losses, as Lichtsteiner served as captain in the group stage and is the fourth most capped player in Swiss history. All things considered, the game comes down to the team game of Sweden versus the attack of Switzerland. Sweden has done a good job of winning clean sheets against much more talented teams. Xhaka and Xherdian are very talented forwards who have proven to be dangerous, but compared to the attack of Germany and Mexico, whom Sweden held to a combined 1 goal against, they are not much of a match.
