{"id":20115,"date":"2018-07-06T10:43:07","date_gmt":"2018-07-06T09:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colossusbets.com\/blog\/?p=20115"},"modified":"2021-11-22T20:00:15","modified_gmt":"2021-11-22T19:00:15","slug":"sweden-v-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colossusbets.com\/blog\/sweden-v-england\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweden v England – Dave Tindall’s Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sweden v England<\/a><\/h2>\n

Play Colossus Pools Here<\/a><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s go back to those pre-tournament wallcharts.<\/p>\n

For the quarter-finals, I\u2019ve got Uruguay v France but then it goes very wrong. Okay, Brazil and Belgium are in my final eight but I eliminated Russia and Sweden at the group stage.<\/p>\n

It says here in black pen that England are playing Germany in Samara on Saturday, July 7 at 3pm.<\/p>\n

Right stadium. Right kick-off time. Wrong opponent. How glad I am to be wrong.<\/p>\n

By definition, if Germany had made it to the last eight as usual, they\u2019d be opponents England would not want to meet. They\u2019d have a head of steam and feel almost a divine right that they\u2019d cruise past us and take their rightful place in the semis.<\/p>\n

And why wouldn\u2019t they. Last time we played them in a World Cup knockout match. England 1 Germany 4.<\/p>\n

Instead we have Sweden and our expectations are upgraded from \u201cprobably lose\u201d to \u201cshould win\u201d.<\/p>\n

With that door teasingly wide\u00a0open (England are just 2\/5 to qualify), we can also see what lies ahead. Not formidable opponents such as Brazil or France but very beatable hosts Russia or a Croatia side which needed penalties to beat Denmark.<\/p>\n

So if anyone accuses you of getting ahead of yourself for hastily\u00a0rescheduling plans for next Sunday’s final, respond firmly with a \u201cwhy the heck not!\u201d<\/p>\n

There Is History<\/a><\/h2>\n

The stats will tell you that England usually make a bit of a mess of playing Sweden. Rather like assembling an IKEA flatpack, it looks a straightforward enough task but ends up driving you bloody mad.<\/p>\n

Last 10 meetings \u2013 five draws, three wins for the Swedes and just two wins for England. In World Cups \u2013 1-1 in 2002 and 2-2 in 2006. England led both games but were pegged back and had to settle for draws.<\/p>\n

However, if we\u2019re pinning everything on history, England should already be flying home. History said they always lost penalty shootouts. History said when Jordan Henderson missed his spot-kick, that was stage one of our latest disaster and stage two, another botched attempt, would finish us off.<\/p>\n

But this is where Gareth Southgate\u2019s meticulous preparation and obsession with marginal gains really kicked in. Jordan Pickford knew where four of the five Colombia penalties were going and our takers turned into grooved machines, the hours and hours of practice allowing technique to overcome emotion.<\/p>\n

What utter nonsense from past England coaches who believed that practising penalties was futile as you could never replicate match conditions.\u00a0This was a triumph for detail and an absolutely ringing endorsement of what Southgate has brought to these young and hungry Three Lions.<\/p>\n

Organised Swedes<\/a><\/h2>\n

And yet\u2026.. despite the optimism sweeping over me in continuous waves, I have reservations about Saturday that just won\u2019t go away.<\/p>\n

The Swedes are organised, well-drilled and a bit too cool and composed for all the stupid antics in the box which keep gifting Harry Kane penalties.<\/p>\n

England are finding it very hard to score from open play in this World Cup and if Sweden negate our set-pieces, this could be a very low-scoring affair.<\/p>\n

The 0-0 would not surprise me at all; 1-1 neither.<\/p>\n

And, if that\u2019s the case, and extra-time is simply a war of attrition that neither side can win, we\u2019re back to those pesky penalties again.<\/p>\n

The problem that’s nagging me is that in post-match interviews, England\u2019s players kept telling anyone listening (i.e. the whole world, including the Swedish management team) that they took the spot-kicks that they\u2019d been practising for months.<\/p>\n

Is this an elaborate double bluff or does the Swedish goalkeeper now know that if he dives to his right, he\u2019ll have a sporting chance of saving the spot-kicks from Kane, Rashford, Trippier and Dier and to his left if he wants to keep out Henderson?<\/p>\n

Have those takers practised a second style of penalty? Or are they that good at the originals that Swedish stopper Robin Olsen will have no chance anyway?<\/p>\n

And here was I thinking that Tuesday night\u2019s penalty shootout success had exorcised me of the long-standing demons when England step up to take spot-kicks. Somehow, it\u2019s made it worse!<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a way to put a stop to all this though.<\/p>\n

If England score just one goal, they run the risk of a 1-1 draw and extended drama. But score twice and I don\u2019t think the Swedes have enough firepower to save themselves. Two more goals please Harry and all will be just fine.<\/p>\n

The semi-finals beckon. Let this fantastic journey continue.<\/p>\n

Play Colossus Pools Here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sweden v England Play Colossus Pools Here Let\u2019s go back to those pre-tournament wallcharts. For the quarter-finals, I\u2019ve got Uruguay v France but then it goes very wrong. Okay, Brazil and Belgium are in my final eight but I eliminated Russia and Sweden at the group stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[643],"tags":[166,361,370,291],"class_list":["post-20115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sport","tag-england","tag-russia-2018","tag-sweden","tag-world-cup"],"yoast_head":"\nSweden v England - Dave Tindall's Preview - Colossus Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sweden v England has been a regular occurance in international competitions over the years, and it has always proven to be tightly contested.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colossusbets.com\/blog\/sweden-v-england\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sweden v England - 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