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There’s a fascinating Group G contest taking place on Saturday morning as Sweden take on Italy. Both sides were victorious in their opening group game and with these two outfits expected to prevail, this could be a direct shootout for top spot. The game gets underway at 8:30am UK time and takes place at the Sky Stadium in Wellington.
Sweden Women
Sweden have an excellent recent history in this tournament and the 2019 semi-finalists have lost just one of their last ten World Cup group games. Nevertheless, they weren’t at their best in their opening Group G contest and were forced to come back from 1-0 down to squeeze past South Africa. Coach Peter Gerhardsson was pleased with their performance, however, he admitted that there is plenty of work to be done ahead of this second (and much trickier) group game.
Match has ended
That narrow victory may just kick-start their tournament, yet they need to shake off a series of sluggish performances which date back to the European Championships. Despite conceding to SA, they do tend to be fairly strong at the back, led by Magdalena Eriksson. Stina Blackstenius will be relied upon for goals and creativity alongside Fridolina Rolfo.
Too many draws and stodgy performances have held them back recently and given this is their trickiest group assignment, expectations are understandably modest.
Italy Women
The women’s game has taken huge strides in Italy in recent years and although there is still some way to go, this improvement has been reflected in the national team. They are exceptionally pleasing on the eye, however, occasionally, they may lack the required penetration. Roma’s Manuela Giugliano and Juventus’ Arianna Caruso are the standout players in this squad with the latter providing some much-needed creativity in the final third. They also fielded the youngest player to ever feature at the WWC in Barcelona’s Giulia Dragoni, who started the opening group game at the age of just 16.
Le Azzure have been in decent form overall and they deserved their 1-0 success against Argentina last week. They will enter this contest with plenty of confidence and should be able to ask serious questions of Sweden’s defence.
Having reached the quarter final stage of the 2019 WWC, they will be expected to make it to the last four this time around.
Head to Head
Italy have a poor record overall against this opposition and they’ll be looking to put an end to that underwhelming sequence and reverse the recent trends. Nevertheless, their fortunes have started to slowly improve in recent years and they’ve managed to win two of the last three meetings.
The most recent meeting came in summer 2022 in the Algarve Cup. The match ended 1-1 with Sweden winning on penalties.
Key Betting Stats
- Italy haven’t conceded more than a single goal in a game in any of their last 13 matches across all competitions.
- Across their last 13 international encounters, Italy have conceded just three first-half goals
- Each of Sweden’s last four World Cup victories have been by a single goal margin.
- Four of Italy’s last five victories at the World Cup have been secured with a clean sheet
- Juventus’ Manuela Giugliani had more shots than any other Italy player (3)
- Lisa Boattin had a very busy contest against Argentina. She created the most chances and committed the most fouls.
Match Prediction
There’s not much between these two sides and with both teams having already secured a victory in Group G, this could be a fairly even contest. There is unlikely to be many goals with Italy’s defence looking fairly watertight in recent months.
Winning Combo
Draw and Under 2.5 Goals
Odds – 11/4 with Bet365 Bet Builder
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