Sweden EURO 2020 Preview - History and Expectations

Published on 29 Feb 2020 | Last updated on 01 Jul 2026 | Reading time: 4 minutes

The Swedish national team will be ambitious for a good performance at the European Championship. "Tre Krunur" reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Russia three years ago, winning their group and beating Switzerland in the quarter-finals before losing to England in a semi-final dispute. Janne Anderson's team will strive to reach the final stages of Euro 2020 and given the return of the big star Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the squad, the ranking for at least 1/4 finals seems a realistic goal for the team.

But will Sweden be able to impress football Europe in the upcoming finals this summer? Check out our preview of Sweden at the 2020 European Championships and what we can expect from "Tre Krunur".

Sweden European Championships - History and successes

Sweden will participate in the European finals for the seventh time. The best participation of the Swedes in this tournament is the semifinals from 1992 when they reached 3rd place in the competition. This is also Sweden's first participation in the European finals when they qualified for hosting the tournament. In 1996, Sweden missed the European Championships but always qualified in the next six editions. In the last finals of the Old Continent, Sweden dropped out of the group stage in 2016 at the championship in France. This happened in four of Sweden's previous five appearances at the European Championships, and in 2004 in Portugal, they managed to reach the quarter-finals.

The Road to Euro 2020

The Swedish team ranked second in its qualifying group. "Tre Krunur" performed quite well and collected 21 points in its assets, leaving behind teams such as Norway and Romania. However, Sweden failed to win against Spain, finishing five points behind La Roja. In the qualifying round for the European finals, Sweden suffered only one loss - 0:3 during the visit to Spain. In all other matches, the team managed to score, scoring three or more goals in five of the matches.

Euro 2020 fixtures

Sweden is in Group E of Euro 2020 with the teams of Spain, Poland, and Slovakia.

• June 14, 9:00 pm: Spain - Sweden / La Cartuja, Seville /
• June 18, 3:00 pm: Sweden - Slovakia / Krestovsky Stadium, Saint Petersburg /
• June 23, 6:00 pm: Sweden - Poland / Krestovsky Stadium, Saint Petersburg /

Sweden squad for the European Football Championship 2020

Sweden has players with solid experience on European pitches who play in the top European championships. Of course, the team's game will revolve around Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the upcoming championship, but Marcus Berg and Alexander Isaac are quite good strikers and will support Ibra. The names of players such as Sebastian Larson, Emil Forsberg, Dejan Kulusevski, and Albin Ekdal are visible in the Swedish midfield. In defense, the biggest name of the Swedes is Victor Lindelof, who plays for Man United. Emil Kraft of Newcastle is another Premier League player, as also the goalkeeper Robin Olsen, who defends Everton's colors.

Goalkeepers: Robin Olsen (Everton), Karl-Johan Johnsson (Copenhagen), Kristoffer Nordfeldt (Genclerbirligi)
Defenders: Mikael Lustig (AIK), Ludwig Augustinsson (Werder Bremen), Victor Lindelof (Manchester United), Marcus Danielson (Dalian Yifang), Martin Olsson (Häcken), Pontus Jansson (Brentford), Filip Helander (Rangers), Emil Krafth (Newcastle United), Andreas Granqvist (Helsingborgs IF)
Midfielders: Sebastian Larsson (AIK), Albin Ekdal (Sampdoria), Emil Forsberg (RB Leipzig), Ken Sema (Watford), Viktor Claesson (Krasnodar), Jens Cajuste (Midtjylland), Mattias Svanberg (Bologna), Kristoffer Olsson (Krasnodar), Dejan Kulusevski (Juventus), Gustav Svensson (Guangzhou)
Forwards: Jordan Larsson (Spartak Moscow), Alexander Isak (Real Sociedad), Robin Quaison (Mainz), Marcus Berg (Krasnodar)

Source: www.zimbio.com

The Big Star: Zlatan Ibrahimović

After it became clear that Zlatan Ibrahimovic will return to Sweden for the European Championship, there is no doubt who is the big star in the team. Ibrahimovic is one of the nation's most legendary footballers. He is an 11-time winner of the award for the best football player in Sweden and is the top scorer in the history of the national team, scoring 62 goals in 116 games. The footballer resigned from the national team after Euro 2016, wanting to return to the squad for the 2018 World Cup, but this did not happen. However, we will see Ibrahimovic at Euro 2020 and his magic can help Sweden go further in the tournament.

Expectations for Sweden at Euro 2020

We don't expect the Swedish team to pass its group. Despite a star like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, we don't think, that the Swedish team is able to win against the young Spanish team. Poland has a good team, and hist star - Robert Lewandowski doesn't stop scoring in any competition this season. Undoubtedly, Sweden's matches against Poland and Slovakia will not be easy, but the Swedes can take points in these matches. In our opinion, Sweden will finish in 3rd place in Group E, but everything is possible, so they will have their chance to reach the quarterfinals of the European Championship.

Odds for Sweden

This is another group, where the teams are very balanced. This is our personal view, but maybe the bookmakers are thinking the same way. They are giving a very low probability to win the group and go through the 1/8 finals. Sweden is also out of the top 10 favorites for winning the European title in 2020. Here are the current odds for the "Tre Krunur":

To win Euro 2020	101.00
To win Group E	7.00