England v Sweden: Correct Score Tip

Having earned a creditable draw with France on Monday, England now need to crank up their attacking performance against Sweden on Friday night. Or at least that’s what the media and pundits are generally saying. In reality, grabbing a solitary goal again, but this time with a clean sheet would do Roy Hodgson just fine. The 1-0 victory for the Three Lions is a best price 13/2 shot with BetVictor.

That was the score when these two sides met at Wembley as recently as last November. Under the guidance of Fabio Capello, and more recently Hodgson, England have won four of their last six fixtures - all by a 1-0 scoreline.

People who are talking about ‘really going for it’ against the Swedes are perhaps showing a little naivety. Erik Hamren’s side are no whipping boys and the British press would surely be affording the Scandinavians more respect if they had simply held on to their second half lead over Ukraine.

They didn’t, largely due to vulnerability in the air, often on set-pieces. This is an area that England must exploit but the chances of Hodgson’s boys running riot are slim to zero. They had the lowest percentage of passes (51%) in the opposition half of any team in the first round of group games. To some extent this can be put down to the excellence of the French, but only so far.

Roy Hodsgon has tellingly continued to refer to ‘counter-attack’ in the build-up to this latest Group D match. He realises where the strength lies in his squad. It probably won’t be very pretty, but the outcome is everything. If another 1-0 victory is ground out then most fans will be more than happy.