Top-ranked Germany emerged as winners of Group B with an emphatic 4-0 victory against Thailand on Monday. The two-time champions will look to sustain the momentum from that dominant group campaign when they take on surprise strugglers Sweden in the round of 16 at Lansdowne Stadium this coming Saturday.
Who will grab the edge in this battle between European heavyweights? Read on below for a complete breakdown of this much-anticipated knockout clash and while you’re at it, you can check out our World Cup round of 16 previews of USA vs. Colombia and Canada vs. Switzerland.
Germany will head to the knockout stages with momentum on its side after thrashing Thailand, 4-0, in its final group match on Monday. Lena Petermann scored twice in three minutes for the Germans who capped off their Group B campaign with seven points to their name.
[sc:Soccer240banner ]Key to the Germans’ unbeaten start in this tournament has been their stellar attack. They have scored a total of 15 goals in the group stages, the best mark in the entire competition. To no one’s surprise, it was Germany’s star duo of Celia Sasic and Anja Mittag who carried the cudgels for the two-time champions on the offensive end.
They scored a combined seven goals in the group stages with Mittag leading all World Cup scorers with four goals. Sasic and Mittag opened this year’s World Cup with a bang, scoring a pair of hat-tricks in Germany’s 10-0 rout of Ivory Coast. Sasic scored the fastest (from kickoff) hat-trick in World Cup history in that game, bagging goals in the third, 14th, and 31st minutes.
An argument can be made that Sasic and Mittag scored those goals against inferior competition but they have already proven in the past that they can wreak havoc against the world’s best. In fact, they combined for a whopping 20 goals in Germany’s last qualifying campaign.
It isn’t just Sasic and Mittag, though, who are making waves in this competition for Germany. Also expected to play a major part for the Germans in their upcoming game against Sweden is the talented youngster Dzsenifer Marozsan. She has stepped up big time in the absence of reigning FIFA World Player of the Year Nadine Kessler, providing the creativity in the heart of the German midfield in this year’s World Cup. She has scored a total of 25 goals in 50 appearances for the German national team.
The Germans will need Sasic, Mittag and Marozsan to be at the top of their games to unlock a Swedish defense that has allowed just four goals in this tournament. Germany defeated Sweden, 2-1, in their last meeting in the Algarve Cup back in March.
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Betting on Sweden
Sweden will live to fight another day in the 2015 Women’s World Cup after it booked a spot in the round of 16 on Wednesday. Even though they finished the group stages with just three ties, the Swedes’ three-point tally was enough to send them through to the knockout phase.
They will have their work cut out for them, however, in the next round as lying in wait for them this coming Saturday in the round of 16 is the two-time champion Germany. The Swedes won’t be fazed by that matchup one bit, though, as they have fared extremely well against the Germans in the Women’s World Cup in the past.
They have won two of their three games against Germany in their previous World Cup matches, with the Swedes outscoring the Germans, 8-4, in those three games. If they are to continue their dominance of the Germans in this competition, the Swedes will need to bring their physical style of play this coming weekend. They have committed a total of 32 fouls in the group stages and that has enabled Sweden to concede just 10 shots on target and four goals from their opponents this campaign.
With Germany possessing a world-class attack and Sweden struggling for form at the present time, the Swedes have no other recourse but to grind it out against the Germans and turn the match into a highly-physical battle. That being said, Sweden is more than capable of engaging this all-conquering German squad into an offensive shootout if it wants to.
Expected to lead Sweden in such a scenario is superstar Lotta Schelin. The Swedish captain has a whopping 80 goals in 153 appearances for the national team but surprisingly hasn’t scored a single goal in this tournament thus far. With a spot in the last eight at stake this coming Saturday, now would be the perfect time for Schelin to end her goal-scoring duck.
Writer’s Prediction
Germany (-243) stamps its class against Sweden with a 3-1 win.
