The Friends Arena in Solna will provide the venue for this upcoming League A Group 3 clash between hosts, Sweden, and top of the group, Portugal, with a valuable three points at stake for both teams on Tuesday night.
Sweden’s promising four-match winning streak came to an abrupt halt in their opening group match against France despite holding home advantage at their Friends Arena, and the Swedes face another tough fixture against the reigning European champions and current winners of the Nations League, Portugal, this Tuesday as the hosts look to get off the mark.
Prior to the start of this term’s Nations League, Portugal and France looked to be the favourites for this group and early indications suggest that this forecast may be correct as they both sit on three points apiece, while Sweden and Croatia both lost their opening matches.
Sweden had previously been unbeaten in eight matches beforehand which included six wins with only a win against Romania being a victory of any note, and although Sweden beat Portugal 3-2 away back in March 2017, this was in a friendly but the two previous exchanges saw Portugal run out 3-2 and 1-0 winners in World Cup qualifiers in 2013.
Onto Portugal, and they opened their account in Group 3 with an impressive 4-1 victory over Croatia and the margin of their win was perhaps even greater than many would have predicted before the match as Portugal simply ran riot.
The victory over Croatia means that Portugal have now won eight of their previous nine matches in all competitions, and even without the services of Cristiano Ronaldo, the visitors are blessed with an embarrassment of riches with the likes of Fernandes and Moutinho in midfield along with Bernardo Silva and Jota in the forward positions.
With just one defeat from their last seven matches on their travels, Portugal look the real deal right now and having scored 18 goals in the process during this period, further goals look likely as they seek another three points which would see Portugal take a big step towards a possible group win and a place in the knockout rounds.
Let’s not forget that Portugal are not only the reigning European Championship winners but also the holders of the Nations League and they’ll be eager to defend their title, starting with a win in Stockholm on Tuesday night.