10th Jun 2012 | Euro 2012
Ukraine v Sweden Tip
Underestimated, like their Scandinavian neighbours Denmark. The Swedes are well capable of an 'upset' of their own.
It’s not particularly clear what Ukraine have done to gain strong favouritism (17/10 BetVictor) for their opening encounter against Sweden. Yes, they are at home, but as we saw with Poland on Day 1, and on numerous other occasions in the past, hosts often start in ignominous fashion.
It’s always difficult to assess the sides who qualified automatically, with a two year absence of competitive football. But what we can deduce is that Ukraine’s friendly results have been mediocre at best. On the plus side they drew 3-3 with Germany last November and then won three on the bounce against average opponents. But then they lost their final two warm-up games to Austria and Turkey - neither of whom made the cut this summer.
What we can say of Sweden is that they got here by finishing second behind Netherlands courtesy of 31 goals scored. More recently, the return to a fluid 4-2-3-1 system has worked wonders for getting the best out of Zlatan Ibrahimovich who has been integral in four straight wins.
With probably the most dangerous player on the pitch and arguably the better pedigree all round, I think best odds of 2/1 (WilliamHill) on the Sweden win are irresistible. They won 1-0 in Ukraine less than a year ago; home advantage has been overstated again.
Odds correct at time of publishing: 22:08 10th Jun, 2012 but subject to change
