Swedes happy with underdog tag ahead of France World Cup showdown

VANCOUVER: Sweden’s players are unbothered that few pundits see them beating France in their World Cup last 32 clash in New Jersey on Tuesday, saying the pressure will be on the French.

The Swedes trained on Sunday and practiced their penalties ahead of the game, which will likely see them setting up to defend in a low block and trying to hit France on the break.

“I don’t think so much about whether we’re favourites or not, to be honest, I’m mostly thinking that we’re going to do what we’ve been talking about all this year – we’re going to do our best, and if we do that, we have a great chance to beat them,” midfielder Daniel Svensson told broadcaster SVT.

“They’re one of the favourites to win the whole thing, so of course they’re favourites (against us). They are my favourites. It’s hard to say exactly how big of a favourite they are, but of course they’re favourites.”

France’s feared offence will take some containing, but the Swedes boast a potent forward line of their own, with Viktor Gyokeres and Alexander Isak both capable of getting on the scoresheet against any team in the tournament.

“It feels like we have good energy in the group, it feels like we are calm. We work on what we need in the training sessions, and it feels like we are looking forward to the game in a positive way,” Gyokeres said.

Midfielder Yasin Ayari is expecting a tough encounter against the 2018 champions and 2022 finalists.

“We’re going to need to defend a lot, but we’re also going to be able to create chances against them. We believe that we can also be dangerous against them,” he said.

“We have good football players and we believe in ourselves as a team, so I think we can also beat them. We’re going into this game with full confidence and we hope to win, of course.”