Sweden vs Switzerland LIVE World Cup 2018: Emil Forsberg goal seals quarter-final place - reaction from St Petersburg
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Sweden and Switzerland face off on Tuesday with the prospect on an unlikely quarter-final place and a potential meeting with England.
Sweden were the shock winners of Group F, which saw Germany finish bottom in an enthralling final round of fixtures.
Switzerland on the other hand saw off the challenge of Serbia to make sure they went through behind tournament favourites Brazil.
Follow all the live action below…
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What time is it?
The game kicks off at 3pm BST in St Petersburg.
Where can I watch it?
The game will be shown live on BBC One and BBC iPlayer, with coverage starting from 2.30pm BST.
Odds:
Sweden: 2/1
Switzerland: 7/4
Draw after 90 minutes: 2/1
Prediction:
Sweden 2-1 Switzerland. It will be a close game between the two and despite Switzerland being the higher-ranked side, Sweden’s performances so far look like they could be enough to guide them through. Just.
Sweden vs Switzerland
Hallå and bonjour, welcome to the Independent's live coverage of the penultimate round of 16 match as Sweden take on Switzerland.
Who would have thought one of these sides are about to make it to the quarter-final, ey?
Kick off it at 15:00 but we have tonnes of build up to get through before then, so stick around.
The preview
'Underdogs against Switzerland according to Fifa world rankings and the bookmakers, Janne Andersson’s men are still struggling to get the respect they deserve from the outside world but within it they believe that anything is possible.'
Sports editor Ed Malyon takes a look at how Sweden will be building on an already memorable World Cup.
Predictions
How do you see this one going? It's a tough one to call but the majority of you are going for a Sweden win! Scroll down and lock in your thoughts with our predictor towards the bottom of the page.
Scroll down and predict the result
No Zlatan no promblem
With eleven-time Swedish footballer of the year out of the team, the expectation was that Sweden would struggle without Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
With 62 international goals in 116 games, Ibrahimovic had been at the point of attack for Sweden for the last 17 years, but without him, Sweden are looking for a win which will take them to their best World Cup finish since hosting the tournament in 1958 when they finished runners up.
Resident Swede Lawrence Ostlere takes a look at why they are doing so well without him.
Switzerland expecting cagey affair
Switzerland have been flying low under the radar and the side ranked sixth in world, yes sixth, are facing their chances of a tournament to remember.
"We have to be ready to play really well from the get-go in such a way to have the initiative on our side," coach Vladimir Petkovic said Monday.
"We've been more dangerous in the second half of games but this time we want to keep that pressure up right from the get-go and I think that's going to happen," he added.
"We have to be very specific, because tomorrow I'm sure there will not be many goal-scoring opportunities for us."
Team news
Official team news drops in about an hour but there are already some key omissions from both sides.
The Swiss team is without the heart of its defense, with captain Stephan Lichtsteiner and Fabian Schaer suspended after picking up their second yellow cards of the tournament. This means former Arsenal defender Johan Djourou (that's right he's still playing) could make his first start of this tournament.
Hull midfielder Sebastian Larsson is suspended for Sweden and captain Andreas Granqvist's wife is due to give birth to twins, however he insists he will be playing.
Swiss pair learned from fine
Granit Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri were both fined 10,000 Swiss Francs for their celebration against Serbia.
Both the goal scorers are ethnic Albanians and of Kosovo heritage, and celebrated with a gesture which appeared to imitate the eagle displayed on the Albania flag.
“Football is rightly an emotional game, and it has to be,” added the Swiss manager Vladimir Petkovic. “What has happened has happened, and now and we have to be aware of things like that and we have to learn from that.”
Head to head
These side have never met in a major tournament before, and their last meeting was a 1-1 friendly played in Malmo, Marcus Allback and Ricardo Cabanas with the goals on that occasion.
Well this is strange
The Swedish embassy in America has released a very handy guide to the difference between Sweden and Switzerland.
Remember, Sweden is full of IKEAs and Switzerland is blokes yodeling everywhere.
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