Sweden vs Serbia preview

June 4, 2012
By: Frank Beresford

Sweden go into their final test for the Euro 2012 on the back of a 3-2 win over Iceland, whereas Serbia are hoping to avoid the third straight defeat in friendly games.

The Nordic country largely impressed in the Euro 2012 qualifiers, having picked up no less than 24 points from 10 group games, which was no easy task in a group that also contained Netherlands, Hungary and Finland, among others.

Erik Hamren’s side made it to the final tournament as the best second-placed side, and after losing to Denmark and England in the first two friendlies, everything soon fell into place.

Sweden beat Bahrain and Croatia at the start of the year, while they successfully overcame neighbours Iceland last Wednesday.

With the game against experimental Serbia side next on agenda, odds of 1.73 (8/11) offered by Stan James on home win do look tempting.

Anders Svensson and Tobias Hysen are both suffering from fatigue, but they should be in contention, but Johan Elmander remains sidelined.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Isaksson – Granqvist, Mellberg, J. Olsson, Martin Olson – Kallstrom, Wernbloom – Larsson, Ibrahimovic, Toivonen – Rosenberg.

Serbia may have lost both friendly games in May, but at least boss Sinisa Mihajlovic managed to test quite a few new players against some very strong opponents.

The Eagles lost to both Spain and France, but they showed a lot of potential in those games and they have reason for optimism ahead of the start of the 2014 World Cup qualifiers.

The boss will use the Sweden game to test the final batch of players and there will be certainly some new faces in the starting line-up.

Aleksandar Lukovic is set to start after recovering from injury, but Ivan Radovanovic is out of contention. Bosko Jankovic and Srdjan Mijailovic are both injury doubts.

Serbia are not really without chances at Rasunda Stadium in Stockholm and you should know Betfair pays 5.60 (23/5) on away win.

Probable starting line-up (3-4-2-1): Aleksic -Subotic, Maksimovic, Lukovic – Tomic, Petrovic, Mijailovic, Obradovic – Lazovic, Z. Tosic – Lekic.

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