Sweden vs. Switzerland
St. Petersburg Arena, St. Petersburg
No one is expecting anything other than a rather unexciting defensive battle in this round of 16 match. Which, given how this World Cup has gone, likely means it will be a wildly entertaining, high-scoring affair.
Switzerland’s Breel Embolo explained his team’s learning curve like this: “Two years ago, we lost to Poland in the last 16 at Euro 2016. We learned from that. The fact we’ve been able to come from behind twice here in Russia shows we’re ready for more.”
Switzerland dodged a bullet when Xherdan Shaqiri and Granit Xhaka were fined rather than suspended for celebrating their goals against Serbia with a tribute to the Albanian flag.