The battle for Northern Europe
The Women's World Cup quarterfinals are upon us and next up is Germany vs Sweden. 2nd ranked Germany face off against 9th ranked Sweden in Rennes on Saturday evening in what has been quite a lopsided fixture in the Germans favour but will the Swedes manage to buck the trend?
Germany
The German's have been absolutely ruthless thus far having won all of their games whilst scoring 9 goals and conceding none in the process. Absolutely unstoppable.
They made very light work of a decent Nigeria side in the last round with 3-0 but also soundly beat a Spainish side in the group stage that were on the brink of defeating World number 1's USA.
One could make the argument that they have yet to play any of the real big hitters but they have so far been absolutely faultless and will be brimming with confidence ahead of their game against Sweden.
Main women Alexandra Propp and winger Sara Däbritz have, along with everyone else to be fair, been nothing less than stellar and will be more than excited to face the slow Swedish centre-backs.
Sweden
The Swede's have also performed very well having won all of their games bar the 2-0 loss to USA where they were missing a few starters. The ladies in yellow come off the back of a highly impressive win against a very strong Canadian team that supposedly boasted one of the tournaments best defences which will have them full of confidence.
However, the German's are a whole different beast. With all due respect to Canada the German's have a history of excellence regarding their women's team and are basically expected to bring back the trophy having forfeited it to the USA last time around.
A negative aspect from a Swedish perspective is despite missing a couple of starters against the USA during the group stage the Swede's were outclassed during the full 90 minute duration on every inch of the pitch and honestly just looked like they could not keep up. The USA and Germany are very similar in quality meaning that the Swede's will have to bring their A game if they are to have a chance of advancing on Saturday.
Betting tip
I am of the opinion that this German team is a cut too far above this Swedish side, the difference in quality is simply too big which is why i will be backing a German win at 67/100 with Unibet.
