Coming into the World Cup it felt like Germany were going to walk through their group with minimal difficulty, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth. The world champions struggled against both Mexico and Sweden in their first two WC games, and now, those two teams will battle it out as they attempt to reach the knockout stages. They were considered to be the two teams who would battle it out for second place, but by the time it’s all said and done, they could both be progressing to the Round of 16.
Mexico
Mexico seem to be the ‘people’s team’ of the 2018 World Cup, with many fans getting behind them after they picked up six points from their first two games. They have a string of talented attacking players and an impressive defensive unit, with their cardio being the only real issue that we could pick out from their opener against Germany. If they can quietly go about their own business then a win in this one is entirely possible, especially with Lozano & Hernandez being on form.
Team News
Edson Alvarez and Marco Fabian are both making strong claims to edge their way into the starting XI, but apart from that, the manager may not want to upset the status quo too much as they go in search of qualification.
Sweden
Without Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Sweden were expected to struggle immensely to get through their group in Russia. While they may have lost against Germany it took a late wonder-goal to prevent them from gaining a point, and while that could often be enough to kill a team’s confidence, they’ll know that they need to put everything on the line in order to reach the knockout stages. They’re a well-oiled unit on their day, and they just need to maintain that pace for 90 minutes.
Team News
Sebastian Larsson, Viktor Claesson and Albin Ekdal are all only one yellow card away from being suspended, but in terms of the starting XI, many are expecting Sweden to stick with the team that took Germany to the limit.