Germany vs Sweden Prediction & Betting Tips - World Cup

Prediction published on 18/06/2018, 16:15  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 24/06/2018 at 01:33 in World Cup Predictions

Germany find themselves in big trouble after they lost their opening World Cup fixture to Mexico. If they were to finish second in this group then they'd meet the winners of Group E in the last sixteen and that could well turn out to be Brazil. The Germans had a few struggles in the warm-up to this tournament including a 2-1 loss to Austria who didn't even qualify for the finals. Their last seven games have only produced one victory and that was a 2-1 win over Saudi Arabia who then went on to lose 5-0 to Russia in their opening group match. The controversial decision to leave Sané out of their squad may yet come back to haunt them and this is a German team that have lost three out of their last four games. They certainly didn't hit top form against Mexico and 26 goal attempts without scoring once is a terrible return for a German side that isn't getting any younger. They have only scored four times in their last five matches and one of those was an own-goal. Failure to win this match wouldn't be the end for the Germans but if Mexico beat South Korea then nothing but a win here would keep alive their hopes of winning the group.

It took a 65th minute penalty for Sweden to get a 1-0 victory over South Korea in their opening group match. That gives them a two-point lead over Germany coming into this match but they also still have to face Mexico so it's going to need a couple of massive efforts to get them into the last sixteen, something they haven't achieved since 2006, the last time they actually qualified for the finals. Their win over South Korea was a scrappy one but they did create the best chances and deserved their win.  The win ended a run of four games without a win but they haven't conceded in their last three and of course played two play-off games against Italy without conceding a goal so Germany may find it difficult to get the vital breakthrough. The tip here is to go for under 2.5 goals to be scored in this game.