ENGLAND v SWEDEN - THE BEAN PREVIEW
England 11/8 - Draw 7/4 - Sweden 9/4 (
Sky Bet)
The finale of group B sees Sven Goran Eriksson's men take on his
homeland side Sweden at Cologne.
England have already sealed their place in the
second
round of the World Cup after unconvincingly beating Paraguay and
Trinidad
and Tobago and only need a draw to guarantee top spot.
Sweden have also not
been
in impressive form also after a disastrous draw with Trinidad
and Tobago and a scrappy
1-0
win over Paraguay.
A win for Sweden will make them top of the group, a
draw
will guarantee second place, but a loss would enable the Soca Warriors
a
chance to nick second place from the Swedes.
England have met the Swedes several times over the years but England
have not won a game against the Scandinavians in eleven matches since 1968. Seven of
the
matches have been draws and four resulted in wins for Sweden.
Wayne Rooney has defied medical science and is fully fit after a broken
foot. The 20 year old will start up front with Michael Owen. Gerrard
has
been rested, due to him being on a yellow card. Either Hargreaves or
Carrick
will fill in for the Liverpool captain. Gary Neville won't be fit in
time
for the match, so Jamie Carragher will play right back.
Juventus player Zlatan Ibrahimovic is likely to miss out on a place in
the
starting line-up as he has a groin strain. Marcus Allback will partner
Henrik Larsson instead.
England are slight favourites according to the bookies, which is just
about
right judging by Sweden's recent performances, but also adds the fact of England's woeful record against the Swedes. An England win of 1-0 has
odds
of 5/1 and a 2-0 win is priced at 6/1.
Wayne Rooney to score the
first
goal on his comeback has odds of 5/1. A good outside shot is Jamie
Carragher
at 100/1 as he did have a couple of shots at goal last Thursday.
In the last meeting between the two nations Sweden won 1-0. The odds of
the
same score repeating are currently 6/1. For a 2-1 victory you can
get
odds of 11/1. The most likely outcome today however is a draw as three of
the
last four meetings have ended with the spoils shared. A 0-0
result
has odds of 11/2 and 1-1 is priced at 5/1.
My prediction 1-1
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