Unfit Swedish Team to Face Germany?

The wait for the clash between Germany and Sweden is over, as both the teams are ready to face each other today in Sochi. But the concern is Sweden’s three prominent players are not fit enough and one recovering injury. Pontus Jansson, the player who ensured the 1-0 win over South Korea at the beginning of this week, defender Filip Helander and midfielder Marcus Rohden couldn’t accompany the rest of the team to Sochi after complaining of stomach upset issue 2 days back.

The Sweden Coach, Janne Andersson, however, said they are yet to identify the cause of the health problem. Though the rest of the team have arrived in Sochi. Jansson, Helander, and Rohden, are expected to join rest of the team later. Coach Andersson informed, “Let me start by saying four players are not training, three players felt unwell in the stomach last night so for security reasons we’ve decided to split group. We didn’t want them to bring on the flight as we haven’t been able to identify precisely yet what made them feel queasy. They will fly later”.

Stomach bug is a common phenomenon and it is not for the first time that the Swedish team is affected by this illness. In the previous match with South Korea too, Manchester United defender Pontus Jansson was replaced in the central defense because of his illness. Apart from the illness, the Sweden team also has injury issues too. Isaac Kiese Thelin who was injured while playing the South Korean in their previous match is also a valuable player of the team and is recovering.

Though with the rest of the team Sweden is hopeful to perform better against Germany. But critics are of the opinion that, with so many players down, the team may make or break the team. Sweden Coach Janne Andersson is still hopeful, as he says, “I expect they will join us and I hope it will continue along the path it’s taking right now. You can’t be annoyed with the poor people who have stomach pains, it just happens occasionally and you have to handle it. We handled it with Victor Lindelof and we are doing it with this group now. I’m not annoyed; I’m way past that. I would have preferred everyone to be 100 percent to fight but this is the situation”.

Still, the match is equally important for Germany to win, as this is the second round match in Group F. Fans of Germany were majorly shocked after their team was defeated by Mexico with a scoreline of 1-0 in their last match. The defeat against Sweden may also bound the defending world champions Germany’s exit from the World Cup after the first round for the first time in 80 years.