One thing that always seems to happen during the World Cup, or any given international tournament for that matter, is a country that nobody expects to go far somehow manages to end up in the semi-finals. It’s a bizarre occurrence that truly does validate the claim that anything can happen in this game, and over time, it seems to be one of the elements of football that never seems to change. Case and point: Sweden will face Switzerland in the Round of 16 next week, with the winner potentially being gifted a golden route to the latter stages.

While guarantees don’t come easy in this game, it’s hard to avoid or ignore the variables at play here. Both Sweden and Switzerland have put in solid and not so solid performances in equal measure so far in Russia, and yet through one method or another, they’ve found themselves in an extremely favourable position. Both will fancy their chances in this game, and the reason why we’ve labelled it as the ‘golden ticket’ is that of their side of the draw.

The majority of the big boys such as Brazil, Belgium, Uruguay, Portugal, France and Argentina are all located in the top half of the bracket, leaving the door wide open for one of these European teams to cause a real shock in the bottom half. Whoever wins this game will go on to face either Colombia or England in the quarter-finals, in a game that should also be viewed as extremely winnable. Whoever comes out on top in that encounter will likely be considered the favourites in the final eight, taking the pressure completely off the shoulders of the Swiss and the Swedes.

While we understand that you always want to come up against the big teams in a tournament like the WC for the experience factor, that’s what the group stages are for. In the knockouts, nobody is going to blame you for wanting an easier route to the final. After all, if you get that far, you’re going to have to play an elite team sooner rather than later – so why not avoid it for as long as possible? Plus, even the teams that aren’t considered to be amongst the favourites are always going to give you a difficult game. After all, this is the biggest international tournament in the world that we’re talking about.

World Cup Betting

Nobody is looking past Switerzland to go far this year, but it’s hard not to be incredibly impressed by Sweden. Not only have they been able to neutralise teams at the back with two clean sheets in three games, but they’ve also shown efficiency going forward with five goals in three games. The fact that they were able to bounce back from the Germany result proves how much resiliency they have, and as we look ahead to the final few weeks of this tournament, nobody is going to want to face them.

Don’t sleep on the Zlatan-less Swedes, because they could cause one of the biggest shocks in years.

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