Paraguay vs Sweden Betting Preview

Despite being rated seventeen places below Sweden in FIFA's official rankings, Paraguay must have a cracking chance of beating Lars Lagerback's men in Berlin on Thursday evening, and rate excellent value at 67/20 with BetInternet in the match result market.There has been more than enough proof in the first round of World Cup group fixtures that the FIFA rankings count for nothing. Trinidad & Tobago fought out a 0-0 draw with Sweden, despite being ranked thirty one places inferior in the rankings. This gives rise to the fact that, with the exception of a select band of national teams, the gulf in class between the rest is narrowing all the time.Although they lacked the requisite edge in the final quarter against England, Paraguay were certainly a match for the Three Lion's and the South Americans created their fair share of chances in the second half. Indeed, they kept battling all the way to the finishing line, demonstrating a good collective attitude and spirit. Had Lady Luck shined on Aníbal Ruiz Leites' charges, they would have earned what would have arguably been a deserved point against England.For their part, Sweden created a good deal of chances against T&T in Dortmund, and the game certainly wasn't lacking in terms of action and excitement. However, it is disconcerting that the Scandinavians couldn't make the breakthrough against Trinidad & Tobago, even though the Leo Beenhakker-managed side were reduced to ten men as early as the 46th-minute.Despite boasting high calibre strikers like Ibrahimovic and Larsson, along with Arsenal's ever-dangerous attacking midfielder Freddie Ljungberg, the Swedes patently ran out of ideas as to how they could go about destabilising the dogged Caribbean's and, although they had far fewer chances, T&T actually came the closest of the two sides to scoring when Glenn Cornell hit the crossbar in the 59th-minute.In the shape of midfielders Carlos Paredes and Julio dos Santos, in addition to their young strikeforce, spearheaded by the squad's top scorer Roque Santa Cruz, Paraguay have a quartet of quality players capable of causing Sweden's sometimes suspect defence plenty of problems.Paraguay, or The Albirroja, as they are affectionately known, should have enough in the locker to collect three points from this tie and give themselves a great chancing of qualifying from Group B.Verdict - 2pts Paraguay to beat Sweden @ 67/20 (BetInteret)