Belgium vs Sweden prediction: EUROPE: Euro – Qualification betting tips on match 2023-10-15 18:45.
The pressure is now off for Belgium, who booked their place at next year’s UEFA European Championship after a 3-2 victory over Austria. That scoreline hardly tells the tale though, as the Red Devils came close to squandering a three-goal lead and saw Amadou Onana sent off. Confidence should be high after riding that late storm, especially as Sweden are their next opponents, a team they’ve won each of the last four meetings against – with the most recent three also accompanied by a clean sheet.
Expect Domenico Tedesco’s side to start on the front foot, having taken the lead in six of their matches so far this calendar year. Incredibly, Belgium have won all but one of their Euro qualifiers (W19, D1) since losing 1-0 to Wales in June 2015, while they haven’t fallen to defeat in a home qualifier for more than 13 years!
Sweden visit Brussels on the brink, as any further slip-ups will put qualification beyond them after an underwhelming campaign (W2, L3). Their destiny is already out of their hands despite having a game in hand on the top two, as an Austrian victory over Azerbaijan would consign Janne Andersson’s men to a finish outside the top-two and a first failure to reach the Euros finals since 1996.
Keeping their hopes alive depends on winning successive away qualifiers for the first time since October 2020, and they’ll likely be leaning on their attack to do so given that Sweden are the highest-scoring nation among those outside the top two in their group. Both of their victories in this cycle came courtesy of a 5-0 scoreline, a tally of goals Belgium have conceded just once since 2009, although it’s likely Andersson would settle for any kind of victory here.
Players to watch: After netting against Austria, Romelu Lukaku has now scored ten times in nine matches for club and country. That was his 78th international goal, taking him one clear of the total the great Pelé amassed for Brazil. Viktor Gyökeres is another marksman in fine form, having scored six in his last five games for Sporting Lisbon and also netted in his last away qualifier, the 5-0 mauling of Estonia.
Hot stat: Belgium have trailed at half-time in just two of their last 26 internationals.