There is just one round of fixtures remaining in Group E of the 2021 European Championship. On the 23rd of June at the Krestovsky Stadium, Saint Petersburg, Sweden, and Poland meet with a place in the Round of 16 on the line.
As things stand in the group, Sweden are top on 4 points, Slovakia are second on 3 points, Spain third on 2 points and Poland fourth with 1 point.
Sweden come into this match knowing that if they can avoid defeat, they will qualify for the knockout stages of the competition.
They recorded a crucial 1-0 victory over Slovakia last time out, in what was a tight game, with few great goal scoring chances.
Sweden scored the winning goal from the penalty spot and that remains their only goal to date in the tournament having picked up a point in a 0-0 draw against Spain.
There is no doubt the strength of the Swedish team is in defence and they have yet to concede a goal in the competition.
Trends show Sweden have kept a clean sheet in each of their last 4 competitive fixtures and have allowed just one goal in their 7 most recent games, including friendlies.
Matches involving Sweden do not tend to have a high number of goals in the European Championship and they have seen under 2.5 goals in each of their last 6 fixtures in the competition, going back to 2016.
Poland come into the match having picked up their first point of the tournament against Spain. The Spanish opened the scoring after 25 minutes and could have doubled their advantage early in the second half but missed a penalty.
Poland responded well to the missed penalty and scored the equalising goal shortly after to level the match at 1-1, which was how it remained.
It was an important point for Poland who had suffered a disappointing defeat at the hands of Slovakia in their opening fixture of the competition.
They fell behind after 18 minutes and despite scoring the equalising goal early in the second half, Poland conceded another in the 69th minute to lose the game.
Trends show in their last 13 games at the European Championship, Poland have a poor record of just 2 wins. Poland have seen under 2.5 goals scored in 12 of their last 13 European Championship tournament matches.
Team news and Sweden are likely to keep the same starting XI from the match against Slovakia. Robin Quaison will hope to start the game in attack but the experience of Marcus Berg will probably get the nod.
Grzegorz Krychowiak is available for Poland having been suspended for the match against Spain. However, Jakub Moder may keep his place in the starting XI.
Poland know they will go through in second place if they win and the other game is not a draw, whereas Sweden will go through if they avoid defeat.
🇪🇸🤝🇸🇰✅🇵🇱❓#EURO2020 | #SWE pic.twitter.com/pa53LLgvle— Svensk Fotboll (@svenskfotboll) June 18, 2021
🇪🇸🤝🇸🇰✅🇵🇱❓#EURO2020 | #SWE pic.twitter.com/pa53LLgvle
This will see a defensive first approach from the Swedes, something they are good at and it would not be a surprise to see the game end level, with under 2.5 goals scored.