World Cup Warm-up: Sweden vs South Korea - A classic is not on the cards

If you have your heart set on a classic in today’s early World Cup match, I’d look away now. Arguably, the drabbest match of Russia 2018 was Croatia’s routine 2-0 win over Nigeria on Saturday, but Sweden’s meeting with South Korea promises to trump that. 

Both teams will have been buoyed by Germany’s 1-0 loss to Mexico on Sunday as they strive to put a key three points on the board later today, but this is likely to be one of the matches that quickly and quietly fades into distant memory rather than sets the World Cup alight. 

Sweden come into the meeting with South Korea in the post-Zlatan Ibrahimovic era, yet a lack of stand out talent has resulted in a number of sub-par displays. As Italy found out, Sweden are notoriously difficult to break down, with the centre-back partnership of Andreas Granqvist and Victor Lindelof, arguably, one of the best at the competition. 

Team news and betting odds in our match preview

However, a lack of outstanding goalscoring talent means Sweden haven’t won a match since overcoming Italy 1-0 last October. They haven’t scored more than one goal in a game since an 8-0 qualifying win over Luxembourg last October and even then, they needed a Granqvist penalty to break the deadlock before the floodgates opened. 

South Korea haven’t exactly excelled in the build up to the World Cup either, winning only one of their last six matches, losing four of those. Despite the goalscoring talent of Son Heung-min and Hwang Hee-chan, if Italy can’t break Sweden down, South Korea are likely to follow suit. 

They’ve at least scored twice or more in two of their last seven outings, doing so against Poland and Honduras, but they aren’t tipped to pull up any trees at this World Cup. 

Indeed, there’s a reason we’ve tipped a 1-0 win for Sweden over South Korea this afternoon, with a high-octane, high-scoring affair an unlikely outcome. Don’t expect this to be a memorable between two goal shy opponents looking to make a sustained impact in Russia.

Writer predictions

Martin Laurence - Sweden 1-0 South Korea

Ben McAleer - Sweden 1-0 South Korea

Josh Wright - Sweden 0-0 South Korea