Sweden vs Portugal 09/09/20

09 September 2020

Portugal will be looking to stretch an unbeaten run in their competitive H2Hs with Sweden to seven (W3, D3) when the two nations meet at the Friends Arena this midweek.

A 1-0 home loss to France last time out brought Sweden’s three-game undefeated run in the Nations League to a halt (W2, D1). Each match featured under 2.5 goals and saw just one side get on the scoresheet. Also, before losing to France, Jane Andersson’s men had gone six games unbeaten in all competitions (W4, D2). Notably, all of those four victories had seen the ‘Blågult’ score the opening goal in the first half and add at least one more before FT, without conceding once! Yet, Sweden’s competitive home games post World Cup have been notably tight, with five of eight producing a full-time margin no greater than a single goal (W4, D2, L2).

Meanwhile, Portugal hammered Croatia 4-1 at home last time out to maintain an unbeaten Nations League record (W5, D2). The 2018/19 Nations League winners have managed to beat their rivals despite a -1 handicap in three of those five triumphs, with only two yielding over 1.5 goal margin. Curiously, only one of Portugal’s five competitive trips post World Cup has resulted in a loss (W4, D1), with four of those fixtures seeing over 2.5 goals and both teams on the scoresheet. In turn, ‘Os Navegadores’ have avoided defeat in all four of their previous competitive trips to Sweden (W3, D1), keeping a clean sheet on three of those occasions.