At 3:00 a.m. BST on June 15, the first round of Group E group matches at Euro 2020 was played at the Catua Stadium in Seville, where Spain faced Sweden as hosts.
Crossfire History:
Spain and Sweden have met three times in world-class tournaments (including the World Cup and UEFA Europa League), with records of Sweden 3-1 Spain at the 1950 World Cup, Spain 1-0 Sweden at the 1978 World Cup, and Spain 2-1 Sweden at UEFA Europa League 2008. Sweden have only failed to concede a goal in one of their last 12 matches against Spain. The last time Sweden beat Spain was in a Euro qualifier in October 2006, a game they won 2-0 Spain have a clear advantage over Sweden with 3 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss in their last 5 meetings. Spain's last 6 matches in all competitions have resulted in 4 wins and 2 draws, while Sweden's last 6 matches have resulted in 5 wins and 1 loss, and have won the last 3 friendly matches, which is a good form.
Focus 1: Spain's starry-eyed bid to break the curse
Spain is currently ranked No. 6 in the world, and the entire team is worth as much as 900 million euros. However, it is undeniable that this Bulldogs are at the end of their golden era and are in the revival stage. Spain had won two consecutive European Cups in 2008 and 2012, and celebrated with the World Cup trophy in 2010. But with the retirement of its core players, Spain has had its ups and downs in recent years. Compared to the glorious lineup of the past, the Spanish lineup for this year's Euros is slightly less star-studded, with La Liga giants Real Madrid having no one on the roster. Coupled with the fact that national team regulars such as Ramos, Nacho and Saúl have been dropped by manager Luis Enrique, the outside world's hopes for Spain have diminished accordingly, and they are not seen as favorites to win the tournament. This, in turn, has eased the pressure on their public opinion. It's worth noting that Spain have only won one of their last five first matches in major tournaments (World Cup + Euro) (1-0 Czech Republic at Euro 2016), so will they be able to break the curse of poor debut performances?
Spotlight 2: Nordic Pirates lose Ibrahim
Sweden is ranked 18th in the world, and the whole team is worth 200 million euros. For Swedish fans, the biggest regret than Ibu's absence. in March, Sweden announced that 39-year-old Ibu returned to the national team after five years, despite his age, but his performance is still heroic. However, a knee injury at the end of the season, Ibu eventually missed the European Cup due to injury, which means that Ibu's national team career almost come to an end. Of course, there are two sides to everything, and Ibe's absence may have put Sweden in a better position to be more united in Ibe's absence. Overall, this is Sweden's seventh Euro, and the Nordic Pirates have played in every Euro since 1996, with their best result coming in 1992 when they reached the quarterfinals. However, Sweden have failed to make it out of the group in their last three Euro tournaments. It is worth mentioning that Swedish striker Kulusevski tested positive for the new crown and will miss the match.
Focus 3: Spain's striker weakness! Mou's prediction come true?
Spain's biggest weakness is undoubtedly the striker's finishing ability. The world-famous Mourinho also pointed this out in his column, saying at the time, "Spain doesn't have a top striker like Villa, and after taking control of the game they find it hard to finish off their opponents and can't get enough goals. They will be punished by excellent opponents with runs if they are always like this, they have to finish off opponents in their own way and pull the width when in possession." In this Spain, Morata is known as a "shrimp", even by the fans jokingly called "double reverse foot"; playing in Manchester City, Ferran Torres is not Spain need all-round center forward; Olmer, Oyarzaval, Adama Traore and Sarabia are also not prolific center forward. Olmer, Oyazabal, Adama Traoré and Sarabia are not prolific centers either. However, Gerard Moreno, who plays for Villarreal, has raised eyebrows, as the 29-year-old scored 30 goals last season to help his team win the UEFA Cup. Will he be able to pick up the slack for Spain? Let's wait and see. It's worth noting that Busquets, who previously missed the game due to a new quarantine for Crown Pneumonia, will miss the game, and manager Luis Enrique has not called up any new players to replace Busquets, with the 17 spare players who were previously called up having been disbanded.
Injury/Suspension Information:
Spain: Busquets (infected with a new crown, in quarantine).
Sweden: Kulusevski (infected with a new crown, in quarantine).
Pre-game remarks:
Enrique (Spain manager): "The only fact is that everyone ages and players are not eternal. When I'm in the position of manager, what I think about is not to do a so-called reorganization, but to investigate which players match my soccer philosophy, and that's what I'm doing now. It's true that there are a few youngsters, but there are also some veterans and the lineup will be deployed in a very suitable way. We will try to play Sweden on the counter-attack and it will be a close and tough game."
Andersson (Sweden boss): 'Because it's very hot, we will train at this time of the year to allow everyone to acclimatize in advance. I don't think it's a problem though because it was also very hot during the World Cup in Russia. I don't want the players to get tired before the match, so it is also necessary to move the training time a bit earlier. We've played Spain a couple of times, but it's hard to get a lot of useful information from those games. In the previous qualifiers we took a point at home and were formerly very close to beating them."
Predicted debut:
Spain (4-3-3): 23 - Unai Simon / 2 - Aspilicueta, 12 - Erick Garcia, 3 - Diego Llorente, 6 - Marcos Llorente / 17 - Fabian Ruiz, 8 - Ceballos, 10 - Thiago / 11 - Ferran Torres, 7 - Morata, 9 - Gerard Moreno
Sweden (4-4-2): 1 Olsson/2 Lustig, 3 Lindelof, 24 Danielsson, 5 Pierre Bengtsson/7 Sebastian Larsson, 20 Kristoffer Olsson, 8 Ekdahl, 10 Forsberg/22 Quaesson, 11 Isak
Odds Parsing:
The odds for Spain to win are 1 to 1.38, while the odds for Sweden to win are 1 to 9.11, and the odds for a draw are 1 to 4.60. The odds for Spain to win are more favorable than the odds for Sweden, and the odds for Sweden to win are more favorable than the odds for Spain to win. In terms of over/under, the bookies are offering two and a half goals, the odds of over is 1 to 1.98, and the odds of under is 1 to 1.77, which is more optimistic about the under. Specifically, the score of Spain 1-0 Sweden is the most favored, with odds of 1 to 4.55, followed by the score of Spain 1-1 Sweden, with odds of 1 to 4.92. The first choice for this game is Spain 1-0 Sweden, followed by Spain 1-1 Sweden.
