Euro 2016 Qualifiers: Montenegro vs Sweden preview

November 14, 2014
By: Nemanja Lazarevic

Montenegro vs SwedenThis will feel as a must-win game for Montenegro following a poor start to the qualifying campaign, while Sweden hope to pile more misery on their opponents and virtually eliminate them from the race for the qualifying berths.

The Falcons had high hopes for the Euro 2016 qualifiers having shown a great deal of potential in the previous two campaigns, but things did not start well for Branko Brnovic’s side.

While the team did well to see off Moldova at home, they failed to defeat weak Lichtenstein on the road, despite creating a plethora of clear-cut chances, and it appears that was the turning point.

Montenegro went into the Austria game low on confidence and in turn produced a very poor display to lose the game 1-0, which basically means they cannot afford any more slip-ups if they want to reach the tournament finals.

Coach Branko Brnovic has suffered few more setbacks of late, with key midfielder Nikola Drincic leaving the national team and striker Mirko Vucinic a major doubt with a hamstring problem.

As a result, Montenegro clearly face a difficult task against very good Sweden side, so no wonder home win pays as much as 3.20 (11/5) with Paddy Power.

The good news full-back Savo Pavicevic has recovered from injury, while Mladen Kascelan returns to the national team after a two-and-a-half-year absence.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Poleksic – Savic, Simic, Basa, Bozovic – Zverotic, Nikolic – Beciraj, Jovetic, Volkov – Damjanovic.

Sweden got off to a decent start to the new qualifying campaign, taking five points from first three fixtures to climb to third in the standings, but they need to continue playing well if they want to progress from what is an evenly matched group.

With Zlatan Ibrahimovic only playing in the Austria stalemate, the Nordic side did well to play out a 1-1 draw with Russia before defeating Liechtenstein at home.

The captain is now back in contention, but having only recently returned from injury, the striker is unlikely to start against Montenegro.

His place is likely to be occupied by Manchester City striker John Guidetti, who has scored 9 goals in 10 matches while on loan at Celtic.

And with Joahn Elmander and Ola Toivonen overlooked, the youngster can be backed at 3.45 (49/20) to mark his return with a goal.

Jonas Olsson and Martin Olsson both miss out through injury, with Oscar Wendt likely to deputize at left-back against Montenegro.

Probable starting line-up (4-3-3): Isaksson – Bengtsson, Granqvist, Antonsson, Wendt – Larsson, Kallstrom, Ekdal – Zengin, Guidetti, Durmaz.

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