Sweden vs Albania Prediction: Goals to be at a premium

Albania’s thoughts will soon be turning to the Euros and they will want to show signs of improvement in Sweden after suffering a 3-0 defeat to Chile on Friday. Their hosts, who failed to make it to the summer extravaganza in Germany, are getting used to life under new manager Jon Dahl Tomasson and have to pick themselves up too after being humbled 5-2 by Portugal in the former Blackburn boss’ first game at the helm.

They go head-to-head at 18:00 on Monday night in Stockholm. Here are our Sweden vs Albania predictions which include team news and match odds.

Team News 

Sweden will still be without midfielder Kristoffer Olsson and Mattias Svanberg is also set to miss out, having been injured in the defeat to Portugal. Jesper Karlstrom and Hugo Larsson are also unavailable to the new manager. 

Brentford’s Thomas Strakosha looks set to continue in goal as Erit Berisha pulled out of the squad before the defeat to Chile. Striker Myrto Uzuni was also forced to withdraw. 

Match Odds 

Sweden are 8/13 to come out on top in Monday's friendly with Albania 9/2 to claim a victory, while the draw is available at 11/4. 

Both teams to score can be backed at 4/5 and the same price is available for there to be over 2.5 goals in the match. 

Sweden won 4-1 the last time the teams met in 2009 and a repeat of that scoreline is a 25/1 shot. 

Under 2.5 goals @ 10/11 

The defensive frailties of both of these teams were exposed in their Friday friendly defeats, but we could see a reaction against that in a game with few goals. 

Sweden are looking for a fourth successive home win but their last two came against a modest Estonia side and they are not in a strong place as they have struggled even against some average European teams. 

They have kept three clean sheets in their last 13 matches and will need to ensure they are a lot stronger at the back than they were against Portugal. 

That has to be the priority in Tomasson’s second game in charge, but it is debatable whether Albania pose a huge threat. 

Their 3-0 loss to Chile, which ended an eight-match unbeaten run, was preceded by an underwhelming goalless draw against the Faroe Islands and with 12 of their last 19 away games featuring fewer than three goals, that pattern could continue. 

Viktor Gyokeres to score first goal @ 4/1 

One shining light in the game could be Sporting Lisbon’s Viktor Gyokeres, who was on target for Sweden in that defeat to Portugal and he has shown enough in his league form to suggest he is at the top of his game. 

The former Coventry striker has netted 22 goals in the Primeira Liga for Sporting, including 11 in his last eight appearances, and five in the Europa League, so he is clearly at the top of his game and represents good value at 4/1 to score the opening goal in the Stockholm showdown.