Next Thursday, 9th of October 2014, Russia will travel to Sweden to face the local team at the Friends Arena in Solna for the second round of the Euro 2016 Qualifiers, on match where the visitors, in case of win, may cement their position at the top of Group G.

After a very disappointing performance at the Brazilian World Cup last Summer, Russia started their Euro 2016 Qualifiers at a good pace as they defeated the modest Liechtenstein at the Arena Khimki last month. Their manager, Fabio Capello, was heavily criticized after last Summer’s tournament and there were some who suggested that the best thing to do was for him to leave the Russian National Team. In fact, if we analyze the team’s World Cup opponents, we are almost forced to conclude that the Russians clearly underachieved, as they should have at least progressed to the next round of the tournament without any major difficulties.

The Italian manager’s choices were rather controversial back then as he decided, for instance, to leave players such as Spartak Moscow’s sharpshooter Artem Dzyuba out of the squad. While at Rostov last season, Dzyuba scored a total of 19 goals and such achievement should have granted him a place at his national team.

Despite of his past unconvincing decisions before and during the World Cup, Capello decided to include Dzyuba in his plans again and alongside came Cheryshev, who missed the tournament because he was not fully recovered from a complicated injury, and also Sergei Parshivlyuk, who has been enjoying an excellent season start so far.

The match against the Swedish team will certainly be a major test for the “refreshed” Russia, as from what we have seen from the team’s recent matches, Capello has been implementing some changes both on the tactical department and on the team’s game style.

As for Sweden, the match against Russia represents a good opportunity for them to return to wins after they have failed to overcome Austria on their first Qualifiers match. The Swedish team’s performance in Wien was far from impressive and they have all the reasons to feel happy about their 1-1 draw on a match during which Austria had the best chances to score.

After failing to attend the Brazil’s World Cup last Summer, Erik Hamren’s boys will need to make a stand in their somewhat complicated Qualifying round group. For the match against the Russian, the Swedish manager is not yet certain if he will be able to rely on Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the team’s main star,as he has been still slowly recovering from a recent injury.

Judging by both sides’ recent performances, Russia might enjoy from a slight favouritism for next Thursday’s match, although it is never easy to make exact predictions on a match such as this one.

Sweden

Stats: W-1 L-3 D-1

Recent Form - DWLLL

Russia

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

Recent Form - WWDLD

Possible Line-ups

Sweden (4-3-3) - Isakson - Bengtsson - Granqvist - Antonsson - Olsson - Larsson - Källström - Ekdal - Durmaz - Zengin - Ibrahimovic

Russia (4-4-2 Diamond) - Akinfeev - Smolnikov- Berezutski - Ignashevich - Kombarov - Glushakov - Cheryshev - Samedov - Dzagoev - Kokorin - Dzyuba

Prediction

Sweden 1 Russia 2