Sweden vs Netherlands
European Qualifiers – 2018 World Cup
Date: Tuesday; 6-September-2016
Kick-off: 19:45 UK
Venue: Friends Arena, Solna.


The Sweden national football team has a fresh look when they start their World Cup qualification campaign at home against Netherlands. After an early exit in the group stages of the Euro 2016, the influential Zlatan Ibrahamovic, who is also the nation’s all-time top scorer with 62 goals has decided to hang up his boots. Alongside him, the experienced goal keeper Andreas Isaksson, defenders Mikael Antonsson and Erik Johansson and midfielders Kim Kallstrom, Pontus Wernbloom and Erkan Zengin have all decided to call it a day. With a relatively young and inexperienced squad head-coach Janne Andersson has a challenging task to earn qualification for FIFA World Cup from a group that includes France, Bulgaria and Netherlands.

Netherlands failed to qualify for the Euro 2016 after a disappointing qualifying campaign in which they finished fourth in their group behind Czech Republic, Iceland and Turkey. Daley Blind, who took charge midway through the Euro qualifiers has hardly overturned the results. The squad is relatively young and the poor results keep on coming, the latest a 2-1 home defeat to Greece last Wednesday. Based on head-to-head between the teams in their group, Netherlands are capable of finishing inside the top two in this group. But their recent performances say that this is not going to be an easy route for them.

Sweden vs Netherlands: Head-to-Head

  • Netherlands lead the overall head-to-head against Sweden with 11 wins, 4 draws and 8 losses from the 23 matches between the two sides.
  • Their latest meeting was during the 2012 Euro qualifiers – Sweden won their home leg 3-2 after losing the away leg at Netherlands 4-1.
  • Sweden’s overall home record against Netherlands from 9 matches is 5 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses.

Sweden vs Netherlands: Prediction

Sweden have a good record at home in competitive fixtures as they won 4 and drawn in 1 of the 6 home games during the Euro 2016 qualifiers. They are also consistent while playing in front of their home crowd and scored in 8 of the last 9 games. While the Netherlands have played 7 friendlies after the exit from Euro qualifiers and scored in each of them regardless of the venue. So both teams to score is better bet for this match.

At the same time, betting on an outright winner in this fixture is risky as both teams are pretty inconsistent and vulnerable.

Sweden vs Netherlands: Betting Tips

Both Teams to Score at 19/20 (1.95).