Matildas vs Sweden: International football live scores, blog

The Matildas enjoy a rare match in front of home fans in the lead-up to the 2023 Women’s World Cup, as they face the powerhouse of Sweden at AAMI Park in Melbourne. Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from 2:45pm (AEDT).

Despite positive results against South Africa and the threatening Denmark in early October, the jury remains out on just how competitive the Matildas will be on home soil in the 2023 World Cup.

Sweden looms as something of an acid test, with the result potentially informing fans of just how hopeful they should be for Tony Gustavsson’s team heading into the biggest celebration of women’s football that exists.

Ranked 2nd in the world and a likely semi-finalist in the upcoming tournament, Sweden will be looking for a psychological advantage over both the Australians and the remainder of the football world, with a thumping win that puts all and sundry on notice. Thus, the Matildas will enter the match as underdogs, yet hopeful of producing an upset in front of a passionate home supporter base.

If Gustavsson has been accurate in his prophecies around the team; insisting that there is a long-term plan that will see the Australians suddenly come to life as the World Cup approaches, this would be exactly the moment to produce it and shut down the doubters who feel that the Matildas are still well off the pace when it comes to challenging the Americans, Swedes, Germans and English.

Hopefully the poor Melbourne weather holds off somewhat and the fans do get out to AAMI Park for what is a world-class football match between two teams looking to contend in next year’s World Cup and beginning to refine preparations as the event draws ever nearer.

Prediction

The Swedes have brought a powerful group down under and with fierce competition for spots in their final squad leading into the World Cup, it is hard not to see them being a little too classy for the Aussies.

The key question will be whether the Matilda floodgates open as they did against Spain a few months back. and the Swedes subsequently add to the already considerable concerns around the state of the team heading into such an important year.

Sweden 4 Australia 0

Game information

Venue: AAMI Park, Melbourne
Kick-off: 2:45pm (AEDT)
TV: Channel Ten
Streaming: 10Play, Paramount+
Odds: Matildas $6.50, Sweden $1.36 – odds via PlayUp

Teams

Australia

Catley, Chidiac, Cooney-Cross, Crummer, Foord, Fowler, Gorry, Grant, Kellond-Knight, Kennedy, Kerr, Logarzo, Luik, McNamara, Micah, Nevin, Polkinghorne, Raso, Sayer, Van Egmond, Vine, Wheeler, Whyman, Williams.

Sweden

Andersson, Lind, Musovic, Andersson, Bjorn. Eriksson, Ilestedt, Kullberg, Nilden, Sembrant, Angeldahl, Asllani, Bennison, Blackstenius, Blomqvist, Hurtig, Jakobsson, Janogy, Rubensson, Rytting Kaneryd, Schough, Zigotti Olme