World no. 33 Republic of Ireland and world no. 35 Sweden are set to open Group E competitions in the 2016 UEFA European Championship on Monday, June 13 at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis.
Ireland is considered as one of the dark horses in this summer’s competitions as the team features some global football names headed by team captain Robbie Keane of MLS club LA Galaxy.
Supporting Keane’s sides up front would be Southampton’s Shane Long and Stoke City’s Jonathan Walters as the trio combines for a triple threat attack designed by head coach Martin O’Neill.
The midfield is bannered by Everton’s James McCarthy and Aiden McGeady with West Brom’s James McClean and Glenn Whelan also of Stoke City. On defense, vice-captain John O’Shea of Sunderland leads the cast with Everton’s Seamus Coleman, Norwich City’s Robbie Brady, and Aston Villa’s Ciaran Clark.
However, the usually dominant Green Army had been taking it easy as they were winless in their final three friendlies before the tournament.
Their Euro send-off versus 78th-ranked Belarus ended in a 1-2 loss as O’Neill did not field in his first team during the exhibition, as per BBC Sport. The report noted that the coach treated it as an audition for other national team hopefuls to make the squad at the last minute.
Meanwhile, Sweden is not expected to survive the group stage of the competitions as the team’s best player, Paris Saint-Germain striker Zlatan Ibrahimović, is already running at 34 years old and there is not enough supporting cast for manager Erik Hamrén to work on.
Besides the 6-foot-5 team skipper, there is no other familiar international player in the lineup and so they will have a hard time matching up with the other teams that do.
Their latest pre-tournament friendly was a 3-0 win over Gareth Bale’s Wales and so it should be a reason to have hope, via Goal. Gale did not play the whole game, though, which has somehow misled the final score.
The predicted result is a close 2-1 win for the Republic of Ireland.
Republic of Ireland starting lineup (4-3-3 formation): Randolph; Coleman, Duffy, O’Shea, Brady; McCarthy, Whelan, Quinn; Long, Keane, Walters
Sweden starting lineup (4-4-2 formation): Isaksson; Lustig, Johansson, Granqvist, Olsson; Larsson, Kallstrom, Lewicki, Forsberg; Berg, Ibrahimović
