Prediction and odds for the game: Spain (4/11) vs Sweden (17/2)

We are backing draw/Spain at odds of 11/4

When: Monday, 14th June 2021, Kick-off 20:00

Where: The Cartuja Stadium

On Monday night, Spain and Sweden clash in Seville in Group E of the European Championships, as both teams strive to open their campaigns with a victory.

Spain

Luis Enrique has named a relatively inexperienced squad for Euro 2020, with one of the noticeable absentees being highly-experienced Real Madrid stalwart Sergio Ramos. However, the addition of Manchester City’s centre-back Aymeric Laporte has certainly added quality to the backline, after the 27-year-old decided to switch national teams after failing to make headway into the French national team. Along with Pau Torres, Diego Llorente and Eric Garcia the Spain head coach has solid options at the heart of the defence.

Spain’s recent form has been slightly mixed, but they are unbeaten in eight international matches. They have also kept four clean sheets in their last six international games, including a 6-0 hammering of Germany.

Their preparations had been disturbed by an outbreak of Covid-19 that saw captain Barcelona midfielder Sergio Busquets test negative. The experienced midfielder will not be available for this clash, although Diego Llorente, who had initially tested positive, has tested negative twice and should be available to feature.

Sweden

Janne Andersson’s team will know that there are unlikely to be any easy games in Group E, with Poland and Slovakia the other teams competing for a place in the competition’s knockout stages. On paper though, facing Spain looks to be the Swedish team’s biggest challenge.

As is usually the case, Sweden will be disciplined in defence and possess some exciting attacking players even in the absence of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, in the likes of RB Leipzig’s Emil Forsberg, Juventus’ Dejan Kulusevski and forward Alexander Isak of Real Sociedad. Many of the Spanish players will be highly familiar with the latter, who scored 17 goals in La Liga last season with La Real. The youngster could be one to watch in Euro 2020.

The Scandinavians are of course familiar with Spain, as the pair both qualified from Group F, with Sweden’s only defeat coming against Luis Enrique’s team. It was not just their form in qualifying that was good, though, as they have now won their last five international matches while conceding just one goal.

Recent history is against Sweden in this fixture, though, as they have lost three of their last four meetings with Spain.

Conclusion

Although Spain have been slightly inconsistent of late, they should have enough quality to see off a stubborn and well organised Sweden team. However, we believe it will be a relatively tight and cagey opening game. The Spain win also offers little value in the betting stakes. Instead, we are going to back draw/Spain in the half-time/full-time market. The other bet we are backing is for the game to produce under 2.5 goals, due to Sweden’s defensive solidity and Spain sometimes starting slow at big tournaments.

Verdict: We are backing draw/Spain at odds of 11/4 and or under 2.5 goals scored at odds of 4/5. (All odds are taken from Bet365).

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Who will come out on top between Spain and Sweden?