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Spain begin their quest to reclaim European glory against Sweden at the Estadio La Cartuja in Seville on Monday in their first game of Euro 2020.
The sides, drawn together in Group E, also faced each other twice during the qualifying phase, with La Roja edging ahead on a 4-2 aggregate over two legs.
However, form goes out the window in a game of high stakes like this. La Roja's preparations for the competition were disrupted by some positive COVID-19 cases in the squad. That unfortunately forced the first-team stars to miss their last friendly against Lithuania and go into quarantine.
Sergio Busquets, the first to get infected, has in fact left training camp and is likely to miss their group matches. However, everyone else in the Spain squad has tested negative and Luis Enrique will have most of his key players available.
Sweden, meanwhile, also had two positive cases in Dejan Kulusevski and Mattias Svanberg, and called up six reserve players as replacements.
Spain vs Sweden Head-To-Head
Spain have won twice as many games (6) against Sweden as they've lost (3) in their previous 14 clashes.
When the sides met in the qualifiers for this competition, La Roja secured a 3-0 victory at home. However, the Blagult held the former European champions to a 1-1 draw in the return leg.
Spain Form Guide (all competitions): D-W-W-D-W
Sweden Form Guide (all competitions): W-W-W-W-W
Spain vs Sweden Team News
Spain
Sergio Busquets and Diego Llorente will be two big misses for La Roja during the group stages. However, Enrique has good replacements, with Rodri likely to replace the Barcelona star.
Injured: None
Suspended: None
Unavailable: Sergio Busquets and Diego Llorente
Sweden
The Blagult, like their Iberian counterparts, will be missing two players due to COVID-19. Dejan Kulusevski and Mattias Svanberg will not take part in this match. Meanwhile, prolific striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic was ruled out of the competition with an injury long before Janne Andersson announced his squad.
Injured: None
Suspended: None
Unavailable: Dejan Kulusevski and Mattias Svanberg
Spain vs Sweden Predicted XI
Spain (4-3-3): Unai Simon; Marcos Llorente, Aymeric Laporte, Pau Torres, Jose Gaya; Thiago Alcantara, Rodri, Fabian Ruiz, Ferran Torres, Alvaro Morata, Mikel Oyarzabal.
Sweden (4-4-2): Robin Olsen; Mikael Lustig, Victor Lindelof, Marcus Danielson, Ludwig Augustinsson; Viktor Claesson, Albin Ekdal, Kristoffer Olsson, Emil Forsberg; Marcus Berg, Alexander Isak.
Spain vs Sweden Prediction
Spain's preparations were decimated due to COVID-19 and Sweden will hope to take advantage.
However, the hosts still have plenty of quality in their ranks, and remain favorites to win this match, albeit narrowly.
Prediction: Spain 2-1 Sweden
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