Sweden World Cup 2018
1958 World Cup finalists, and three-time Semi Finalists, Sweden return to a finals tournament for the first time since 2006, hoping they can take inspiration from the past and reach the latter stages in Russia.
History at the World Cup
Sweden first competed at a World Cup finals in 1934, reaching the Quarter Final. They then reached the last four of the next two finals, finishing fourth in 1938 and third in 1950. Their best performance came in 1958, when they reached the Final before losing out to a Pele-inspired Brazil. A quiet period then followed, as they failed to qualify in 1962 and 1966, failed to get past the group stage in 1970 and 1978, missed out on qualification in 1982 and 1986, and made another exit at the group stage at Italia ’90.
After that poor spell, it was somewhat of a surprise when they exceeded expectations and reached the Semi Finals at USA 1994. A third-place finish gave Swedish football fans hope of a bright future, but it turned out to be a false dawn. They failed to qualify in 1998, only reached the last 16 in 2002 and 2006, and haven’t appeared at the last two finals.
- World Cup Finals Appearances – 11
- Previous Best Performance – Runners-Up
How they qualified
Sweden were drawn in a difficult qualifying group, alongside France and the Netherlands, as well as Bulgaria, Luxembourg, and Belarus.
They were always chasing France, after losing to the Euro 2016 finalists in match four, but they levelled things up thanks to a 94th minute winner in the return fixture.
A defeat to Bulgaria in the very next game gave France the impetus back and they didn’t let their advantage slip again. Sweden would remain in a battle for second spot, with the Netherlands.
Sweden gave themselves a massive advantage late in the campaign, winning 4-0 away to Belarus and 8-0 at home to Luxembourg, making their goal difference +12 better than Netherlands with a match between the two to end the campaign.
Sweden lost 2-0 but they had done enough to secure a play-off spot.
In that play-off, they drew Italy and it appeared as if the Swedish would miss out on another finals. But, they won the home leg 1-0 and put in an outstanding defensive performance to hold the Italians to a goalless away draw.
Sweden put out both the Netherlands and Italy in qualifying for Russia 2018, which is a massive achievement.
Coach/Manager
Janne Andersson became head coach of the Swedish national team in June 2016, and has been in-charge for just sixteen games at the time of writing this.
He currently has a win percentage of over 56%, with nine victories, and has led them to their first World Cup finals since 2006.
Star Players
The Swedish squad is a relatively inexperienced one. Seventy players have been called up to the squad in the past twelve months, with only ten of these having more than twenty caps.
Seb Larsson, of Hull City, is the most experienced of these at international level, with 96 caps.
Marcus Berg is perhaps their star player, or at least one of the most important, as he finished the qualifying campaign as top scorer with eight goals.
Sweden World Cup 2018: Assessing Their Chances & Odds
As already said, it’s a relatively inexperienced squad and this could be a learning tournament for Sweden.
They have been handed a tough draw, in a group with Germany, Mexico, and South Korea.
The bookmakers have Germany clear favourites to top the group, with Sweden and Mexico closely matched, at odds of 11/2 and 5/1 to win the group respectively.
Mexico have a better World Cup pedigree, and their players should be more mentally prepared for this tournament, which gives them a slight edge in our opinion.
Our Sweden World Cup Prediction
We believe it will be a battle between Sweden and Mexico for second place in their group, behind Germany. Our selection would be Mexico, based on their pedigree in this tournament but Sweden cannot be written off. However, a probable last 16 clash with Brazil would await, and that will be the end of the journey for Sweden if they make it that far.