Sweden – Tunisia

The African team will not lose to the European team.

The Swedish national team has never really shone at the World Cup in its history. A hockey-dominated country, it has from time to time produced top-class football players. Over the last decades one can recall Zlatan Ibrahimović, Fredrik Ljungberg, and Henrik Larsson. However, these players were 'gems' of their era compared with fairly mediocre teammates in the national team. Now a new star has emerged in Sweden - Viktor Djokeresh. There are also several other players from the English Premier League, but real conclusions about Graham Potter's national team can only be drawn after the group stage of the upcoming championship. Since 1978 Sweden has participated six times in the World Cup, but never managed to advance beyond the group stage. Given the peculiarities of the current World Cup format, this is probably the best opportunity yet. Moreover, in the same group as Sweden are the very strong Netherlands and Japan, which makes the opening match against Tunisia priceless. Under such pressure, the Swedish squad could well struggle. Recall that the Scandinavians reached North America through the playoff of the European qualification, where they beat Ukraine and Poland. It should not be forgotten that in the group stage of the qualifiers Sweden collected two of eighteen possible points and finished last. Is there any guarantee that in the World Cup group we won't see exactly this Sweden? Bookmakers have identified it as the favorite for the upcoming showdown, offering odds of 1.89 on victory. Tunisia conducted a simply fantastic qualifying campaign. In the African qualification the team dominated Group N so much that they finished with a goal difference of 22-0. Tunisia won first place, collecting 28 points out of 30 possible. After the qualifying stage Tunisia did not shine, being eliminated in the first round of the Africa Cup of Nations playoffs. That said, there are no grounds to claim that the North African team is unprepared for the tournament. Curiously, in their last meeting back in 2003, Tunisia beat Sweden 1-0. The Africans will hold their own in the upcoming match.