Poland and Sweden will both be looking to book their place in the 2022 FIFA World Cup when they go head-to-head in the play-offs on Tuesday night.
Sweden qualified for the final phase after beating the Czech Republic 1-0 on Thursday, thanks to an extra-time goal from Robin Quaison.
🌪 pic.twitter.com/alZBGJyQQf— Svensk Fotboll (@svenskfotboll) March 27, 2022
🌪 pic.twitter.com/alZBGJyQQf
On the other hand, Poland were handed a bye to the play-off finals following Russia’s expulsion from the competition.
Poland finished second in Group I – six points behind first-place England and two points ahead of third-place Albania – having recorded six wins, two draws and two losses.
Despite scoring 30 goals across their ten qualifiers (three goals per game), they were forced into the play-offs as one of the best second-place teams.
With that statistic in mind, you probably won’t be surprised to learn that Poland have scored at least one goal in each of their past 15 home World Cup qualifiers.
It is also worth pointing out that Poland have lost just one of their previous 12 World Cup qualifiers on home soil.
Meanwhile, Sweden finished second in Group B – four points behind first-place Spain and five points clear of third-place Greece.
They registered five wins and three draws during the first qualification phase but failed to collect a single draw in the process.
It’s fair to say that Sweden are on an inconsistent run at the moment, having won three and lost three of their last six games across all competitions.
However, trends show that Sweden have avoided defeat at half-time in each of their previous 13 matches in all comps.
Head-to-head: Poland (8 wins) and Sweden (15 wins) have faced each other on 27 occasions over the years (4 draws).
Sweden have won all of their last six matches against Poland and have avoided defeat in each of their previous eight.
Team news: It goes without saying the Robert Lewandowski is Poland’s danger man. The Bayern Munich striker is the country’s all-time leading scorer, having netted 74 goals in 128 games.
Sweden’s squad is also stacked with exciting attacking talent, including Emil Forsberg, Anthony Elanga, Alexander Isak, Dejan Kulusevski and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
With so much at stake, Poland and Sweden are expected to produce a tense and cagey encounter on Tuesday.
For that reason, Forebet predicts that Poland and Sweden will play out a low-scoring draw inside 90 minutes.