The story

Sweden opened the scoring in four of their last five World Cup matches, while Japan drew first blood just once across the same span — and never did so in their home fixtures. Both teams to score has been the outcome in four of Japan's last five World Cup appearances, and goals in this fixture have stayed under 3.5 in five of the six most recent meetings between the sides. Viktor Gyökeres leads Sweden with an average xG of 0.56 per match over their last ten World Cup games, while Yasin Ayari carries the team's highest average rating at 8.54.