Preview: Ukraine vs. Sweden - prediction, team news, lineups

Ukraine are favourites to defeat Sweden in Thursday’s World Cup 2026 European play-off semi-final at the Estadi Ciutat de València.

While Blagult have the element of surprise with Graham Potter now at the helm, Serhiy Rebrov’s side will hope to find solutions against opponents who went winless in Group B in qualifying.

Match preview

Given that every match during World Cup qualifying effectively took place away from home, Ukraine reaching the playoffs was an admirable achievement for Rebrov’s team.

The national side’s only two defeats came against France, who reached the final in both 2018 and 2022 — winning the former — and were always likely to top Group D.

The upshot of Ukraine’s inability to outdo Les Bleus is that they have once again failed to qualify automatically for the World Cup finals, with their only appearance remaining Germany 2006, when they reached the quarter-finals.

Only once in that period — before the 2018 tournament — have they failed to make the playoffs, ultimately losing to Greece in 2010, France in 2014 and Wales before the finals in Qatar.

Given that they are favourites to get the better of Sweden, it will be interesting to see if the national team can inflict further misery on Potter’s men and set up a playoff final with Poland or Albania.

Potter has been in charge of Sweden for only two matches, and the Englishman heads into Thursday’s tie aiming to rectify the nation’s previous mishaps.

The former Chelsea head coach inherited a side in dire straits in qualifying, with Jon Dahl Tomasson given the heave-ho after a shock 1-0 loss to Kosovo in October.

Potter’s first game, against Switzerland, ended in a 4-1 hammering, but the Blue and Yellow secured a 1-1 draw in their final match of the series, with Gustav Lundgren scoring an 87th-minute equaliser to prevent a fifth consecutive defeat.

Despite their ostensible attacking talent — including Viktor Gyokeres, Alexander Isak and Anthony Elanga — Sweden scored only four times, while conceding 12 at the other end, underlining their problems in both boxes.

That is a far cry from the side that netted 19 and let in four in their Nations League C section, although they were beneficiaries of facing lower-ranked opponents.

Ranked 42nd in the world, Potter’s team now bid to take down the 30th-ranked nation and reach next week’s Path B playoff final.

Ukraine World Cup Qualifying - Europe form:

Sweden World Cup Qualifying - Europe form:

Team News

Although Ukraine are favourites to win, they must cope without the suspended Ruslan Malinovskyi and Yukhym Konoplia due to an accumulation of bookings, while Artem Dovbyk (groin) and Oleksandr Zinchenko (knee) are injured.

Rebrov will hope Malinovskyi’s suspension does not prove costly, given he scored three and assisted one during qualifying, registering one fewer goal contribution than Oleksii Hutsuliak (three goals, two assists).

Sweden are without Isak (leg), Emil Krafth (knee), Viktor Johansson and Dejan Kulusevski (knee), although Gyokeres and Elanga should ostensibly mitigate those absences.

Only Yasin Ayari, however, managed more than one goal involvement for the goal-shy Blagult, leaving Potter searching for someone to take on attacking responsibility for the Blue and Yellow.

Ukraine possible starting lineup:

Trubin; Tymchyk, Zabarnyi, Svatok, Mykolenko; Yarmolyuk, Kalyuzhnyi, Sudakov; Hutsuliak, Vanat, Zubkov

Sweden possible starting lineup:

Nordfeldt; Lagerbielke, Hien, Lindelff, Svensson; Lundgren, Bergvall, Ayari, Elanga; Bardghji, Gyokeres