Sweden vs South Africa Prediction: Sweden will start their campaign with a solid win

Sweden and South Africa go head-to-head in the opening Group G fixture of the world cup. Both sides will be aiming to grab an important 3 points to go top of the group ahead of Argentina and Italy, who are scheduled to face each other later in the day. Both countries are familiar with each other and in 3 out of 4 meetings against each other, Sweden have won, with the most recent match ending in a draw.

Sweden did not have the best preparation for the world cup as they won only 2 of their 7 friendly games before the tournament and their last game ended in a 3-3 draw against Norway. And the South Africans find themselves in a similar situation as they were able to win only one of their last 4 friendly matches before this tournament.

Sweden will be hoping they can start their campaign with a positive result despite their very poor display in the warm-up friendly matches. In the friendlies they lost against Australia and Denmark, and played out a draw against Germany and Norway, and managed to beat China.

The Swedish team participated in the 2019 Women’s World Cup and ended the tournament with 12 goals from 7 matches, 2 clean sheets and they conceded 6 goals. They were drafted into the group F, alongside USA, Chile and Thailand. And they ended the group stages in 2nd place with 6 points. And in the knockout stages they defeated Canada 1-0, Germany 2-1 and then lost by a single goal to Netherlands in the Semi-Finals. As a consolation they went on to defeat England 2-1 to win the 3rd place in the competition. Anna Anvegard ended the tournament as top scorer in the Sweden team with 3 goals and 2 assists.

Team Streak: no wins (3), less than 4.5 cards (10/10).

South Africa did not also impress in the warm up games leading to this tournament and they can only hope they can finally get one over the Sweden team, who they have lost to 3 times in the past. South Africa ended their friendly matches with a 2-0 win over Costa Rica after playing 3 games that ended in 2 defeats and a draw, prior to that game. Their record against the Swedish team is also poor as they lost 3 out of their 4 meetings, drawing their most recent encounter after playing 0-0 at full time.

The South Africans will be hoping for a better performance in this year's tournament after their rather poor outing in the 2019 edition. In that year, they scored only 3 goals, conceded 8 and kept 0 clean sheets. They were drafted into Group B alongside Germany, Spain and China and they could not make it through to the Knockout stages as they failed to win any of their 3 group games. Thembi Kgatlana scored only once in that competition, while Linda Motihalo had one assist for the South African team.

Team streak: less than 2.5 goals (5/7), first to concede (4/5), less than 4.5 cards (10/10)

Both Countries have faced each other 4 times in the past and Swede won on 3 occasions and 1 match ended in a draw.

The Sweden team is far more superior compared to their South African counterparts. Not much has changed about the South Africans since their horrible experience in 2019 and there are no indications that the team can go very far in this competition. So, I back the Sweden team to go on to grab an opening day win against a poor South African side.

Bet on:

• Home Over 2 Goals at 1.666 Odds
• Correct Score 3-0 at 5 Odds
• More than 9 Corners at 1.90 Odds