Kick-off: 1945, 08/09/2020
Stadium: Friends Arena
TV: Sky Sports
Nations League holders Portugal look fired up to try and retain their title and are taken to edge out a spirited but limited Sweden side in Stockholm.
The Navigators kicked off their campaign with a convincing victory over Croatia, while their hosts were beaten by France at Friends Arena.
All the momentum is with the away team and they appeal at 83/100 for our first Sweden vs Portugal prediction.
A Look At Sweden’s Betting Odds
Sweden were far from disgraced when losing 1-0 to Les Bleus at this venue, with Marcus Berg, Emil Forsberg and John Guidetti testing Hugo Lloris.
However, Kylian Mbappe produced a moment of magic to put the World Cup winners ahead and Antoine Griezmann should have doubled the advantage via a late penalty.
“To sit here and feel that we had France within reach is really hard,” said head coach Janne Andersson.
Keeper Robin Olsen added: “We deserved more. We did everything to get the ball into the back of the net in a good second half.”
Sweden previously had a solid Euro 2020 qualifying campaign, finishing second to Spain and only losing away to La Roja in 10 fixtures.
They should be competitive again here, but we just favour 3/1 for an away win and both teams to score from the Sweden vs Portugal odds.
A Look At Portugal’s Betting Odds
Portugal had to contend with the late withdrawal of talismanic front man Cristiano Ronaldo when entertaining Croatia but still ran out impressive 4-1 winners.
The Navigators hit the woodwork three times before Joao Cancelo opened the scoring towards the end of the first half.
Diogo Jota, Joao Felix and Andre Silva added further strikes after the interval in a highly-encouraging performance.
“I thought the players could give this display, given how they performed in training during the week,” said Fernando Santos.
Bernardo Silva and Bruno Fernandes provided a creative spark from midfield and the signs are that Portugal no longer need Ronaldo to be a world-class outfit.
One stat which stands out is that the visitors have scored 20 of their last 25 goals in the second half.
That makes 11/10 for more goals to be netted after the break in this match worth adding to our Sweden vs Portugal betting tips.
One other tempting option is 7/2 for the scores to be level at half-time and the visitors to then be ahead at the final whistle.
Additional stats
Last result:
SWEDEN 0-1 France
PORTUGAL 4-1 Croatia – Joao Cancelo, Diogo Jota, Joao Felix, Andre Silva
Head-to-head: Portugal 2-3 Sweden, Sweden 2-3 Portugal, Portugal 1-0 Sweden, Portugal 0-0 Sweden
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