SWEDEN v TRINIDAD & TOBAGO - THE BEAN PREVIEW

ALL ODDS IN THIS ARTICLE ARE FROM PADDY POWER

Trinidad Tobago 14/1 - Sweden 1/5 - Draw 9/2

Both teams kick off their World Cup campaign at 5PM this evening at Borussia Dortmund's home stadium Westfalenstadion. Today will only be the second meeting between the two sides.

Their previous meeting was a friendly in 1983 where Sweden came out 5-0 winners in a very one sided game. One thing to bear in mind though the Swedes lost to 1000/1 outsiders Costa Rica at Italia 90, so they are very prone to get beaten by an underdog.

Trinidad will be without inspirational centre back Marvin Andrews. The tough tackling Rangers defender twisted his knee in a training session earlier in the week. He will be most likely to be replaced by either of the Gillingham duo Brent Sancho or Ian Cox.

Sweden will be without their vastly experienced goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson due to a bizarre training ground incident when he was hit with a fierce shot in the face from point blank range by midfielder Kim Kallstrom. Former Arsenal reserve keeper Rami Shabban will be the likely replacement, but there is concern if Shabban has recovered from his broken leg which nearly destroyed his career. The Swedes will be boosted by the news that Tobias Linderoth will be able to start after recovering from a thigh injury.

Sweden has been in poor form during their warm up games. They have been held by Chile and Finland, and were comprehensively beaten by Republic of Ireland, add to the equation that the available keepers have three caps between them; then Sweden could have a very tough day in Dortmund. For a Trinidad win you can get odds of 14/1, although a draw is a more likely surprise result. A 2-2 draw has odds of 33/1.

It is very unlikely that Sweden will drop any points today, but will probably leak goals due to the inexperience in between the sticks. I think they will have a similar scare that Germany received from Costa Rica. 4-2 has odds of 66/1 and a score of 5-2 has odds of 100/1.

My Prediction - Sweden too strong for Trinidad and Tobago with a 3-1 win (10/1)

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