Tuesday 30 June 2015 13:56, UK
Portugal and Sweden meet in the European Under 21 Championship final in Prague on Tuesday, both looking to win the title for the first time.
Having thrashed the much-fancied German team 5-0 in the semi-finals, Portugal are favourites for the trophy but Sweden themselves enjoyed a comfortable win in the last four, beating Denmark 4-1.
It is the second time the sides will meet in little more than a week. They met in their final group game with a 1-1 draw enough to see both teams progress to the knockout stages at the expense of Italy and England.
Midfield duo William Carvalho and Bernando Silva have earned much of the plaudits for Rui Jorge’s side in their run to the final with the duo reportedly attracting the attention of a number of top clubs across the continent.
Alternatively, Sweden are a side without too many big-names and striker John Guidetti, with two goals to his name so far, is set to spearhead the attack despite being released by Manchester City.
Portugal will be hoping that Liverpool centre-back Tiago Ilori recovers from a thigh injury to return to the starting line-up for the final having impressed in the group stages. Otherwise they have a fully-fit squad to choose from.
Sweden also have just one player down as a doubt with Ghanaian-born midfielder Joseph Baffo nursing a shoulder problem.
Coach Hakan Ericson expects a difficult match and despite seeing his team as underdogs is confident they have the ability to nullify the threat of the Portuguese and cause them problems at the other end.
"It is (a game) against a great team. They are a team who beat Germany 5-0 of course but we met them a week ago and drew 1-1,” he said.
"We know how we can find some space to create chances against them and hopefully we can do it tomorrow again.
"Of course we know they are very good in attack but also we do things a bit different than Germany. We can reduce the speed of their quickest players in Portugal by sitting deep and staying compact and deny them the big areas they found against Germany.
"I am very impressed with a couple of their players, very high individual skills. I think if you look at history, Portugal are ranked before us in a lot of positions in football and also this tournament we are ranked seven or eight. They have to be favourites."
