Sweden plays Russia on 9th October at Nya Ullevi Stadion for the second round of qualifying for the 2016 European Championship in Group G. Kickoff has been set at 19:45.
The last time these two teams faced each other was in 2008 with Russia defeating Sweden 2-0. Both teams are considered as the most likely to qualify, with Russia thrashing Liechtenstein 4-0 at home and Sweden ending with a 1-1 draw away at Austria, for the first round of the qualification.
Sweden need to redeem themselves after the dramatic 3-2 loss from Cristiano Ronaldo and their failure to qualify for Brazil.
A certain Zlatan Ibrahimovic will be looking to score his first one during the qualification round and it will make for a nice birthday gift for him (born 3rd October). The rest of Sweden may be looking also for a bit of revenge for 2008, along with setting some points between them and their main rival. So they will definitely be out to win this one and if possible with a clean two goal difference.
Russia may have defeated Liechtenstein but that is no indication of what they are capable of. They have yet to face the main contenders like Sweden and Austria.
These four matches will determine if they will qualify or not, so they definitely need either a draw or a win. They too are trying to recover from their not so bright performances in Brazil that ended in two draws from supposedly lesser teams like South Korea and Algeria, and a loss from Belgium.
The statistics say that both teams will score at least once and that Sweden have a 55-45 chance of winning this one, mostly due of the home field advantage, with most possible outcomes being either a 1-1 draw or a 2-1 victory for Sweden.