Sweden vs Romania Predictions

Sweden and Romania clash here, 25 years on from a remarkable World Cup Quarter-Final between the sides which the Swedes won on penalties. This Saturday’s match is the first step on the road to Euro 2020 for both teams, although Sweden have already secured a shot at the play-offs thanks to a successful Nations League campaign.

The Scandinavians took 7 points from their 4 games in that competition to top a group which also included Russia and Turkey. That rounded off a successful 2018 for Sweden who also made it to the Quarter-Finals of the World Cup, where their hopes were ultimately dashed by England in the last eight. They will be expected to make the Euros next summer, although they do have some tough competition in a group which also includes Spain and their local rivals Norway.

The draw means Romania will do well to emulate their achievement in qualifying for the 2016 European Championship. That was their first qualification success in 8 years but they couldn’t back it up and only won 3 of their 10 2018 World Cup qualifiers. They did pretty well in the Nations League though, not losing any of their 6 matches but they had to settle for 2nd place in their group behind Serbia in the end.

Romania do take pretty good form into this game but they could just fall short here. They’ve had three players withdraw from their squad and a lack of firepower is a real concern against a Swedish side that are known for their defensive qualities. The entire Romanian squad has just 28 international goals and their forwards have just 8 between them from a combined 41 caps. They were relatively poor travellers during World Cup qualifying, with their final four matches seeing them score just twice and take only four points to effectively end their chances of reaching Russia.

Sweden have been performing well for several years now. They are still coached by Janne Andersson, who did brilliantly just to guide them to the World Cup, not to mention reach the Quarter-Finals. The core of that side remains and they are a tough match for anyone in European football.

With home advantage, backing Sweden to Win looks good here. All of their last 9 international victories have been to nil, so backing Sweden to Win to Nil could also be worth considering, with Romania looking short on quality in the final third.