Russia vs Sweden 09/10/20

09 October 2020

Russia will be looking to end a two-game winless run against Sweden (D1, L1) when the two nations meet at the VEB Arena in an international friendly fixture.

Russia won both of their games during the last international break, scoring precisely three match goals apiece while conceding three times beyond the hour mark. As a result, none of their previous 15 fixtures has ended in a draw (W11, L4), with ten seeing the winner on the day shut out the loser. The hosts have been scoring practically at will lately, netting over 2.5 goals in five of their last six outings, registering a clear majority (71.43%) of their total goals scored across those encounters in the second half of play (15/21). At home, Stanislav Cherchesov’s men have picked up seven wins from nine games after the World Cup exit (W7, D1, L1), beating their rivals on the day via at least a two-goal margin on five of those occasions.

The visitors have suffered a dip in form recently, going from four consecutive triumphs to two straight defeats. Curiously, each of those six results (wins/losses) have seen the winner on the day keep a blank sheet, with half (three) of them yielding the identical 1-0 scoreline. The ‘clean-sheet’ theme has been equally significant for Sweden away from home post World Cup. Indeed, seven of their eight trips since exiting the 2018 World Cup have seen at least one fail to get on the scoresheet (W4, D2, L2), with five of those six results producing a full-time margin of over 1.5 goals. In turn, all of their previous five H2H meetings have contained under 1.5 goals, with just one seeing both sides find the back of the net (W1, D2, L2).