Euro 2012 betting preview - Group D - Sweden 2/2

Now the time has come to look at the Swedish team's midfield and offensive players. In our previous Euro 2012 betting preview on Sweden we covered the betting odds available and their key players in defence, go back and read it here if you have not done so already.

Key Men: Midfield

Kim Källström (Lyon) 90 caps, 16 goals. Källström is a central midfielder with the ability to excel in a variety of positions, as he is flexible enough to play wide left, or either deep-lying or attacking midfielder. He has an excellent scoring record for both club and country.

Seb Larsson (Sunderland) 39 caps, 5 goals. Larsson can also be used in different positions, playing as a right midfielder is his best position, but he can fill in centrally and has in addition played as full back. His strenghts are his great technique and being very talented at free kicks.

Rasmus Elm (Alkmaar) 22 caps, 1 goal. Elm is a much coveted midfielder with an excellent goalscoring record. He is an all-action box to box type of player, who can also play wide if needed. As with Larsson, Elm is another excellent free kick specialist.

Midfield analysis: Coach Erik Hamrén has many options for Sweden in midfield, and there is big experience in there too. This midfield is quite possibly Sweden's strongest for some time, with offensive players who have scored goals aplenty and some serious dead ball specialists.

Key Men: Forwards

Johan Elmander (Galatasaray) 62 caps, 16 goals. Elmander is a centre forward with good close control. He is a clinical finisher, and has overall good skills and good at link-up play.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Milan) 75 caps, 29 goals. Zlatan is the most famous player on the team, and is an extremely talented striker with everything needed to be one of the best world strikers. He is very skillfull and has excellent close control, and the amazing ability to score from nothing. In club league play he has a fantastic strike rate, but hasn't been able to replicate this in Champions league.

Ola Toivonen (PSV). Toivonen is a forward who is more comfortable in a withdrawn role instead of as a pure striker. Skillfull, but also a physically imposing player, Toivonen links the midfield well with the strikers.

Forward analysis: Sweden has top quality forward players and decent strength in depth with Tobias Hysen and Marcus Berg, a little unlucky that the exciting Man City youngster John Guidetti is injured. Johan Elmander is selected, despite being in the latter stages of recovery from a broken foot, he is expected to be fit for play.

End notes

It will be very interesting to see how the Swedish team will fare against the tough opposition in group D. With an experienced midfield with lots of goals under their belt, and a world class striker in Zlatan, they can cause some problems for the other teams. Stay tuned as there are more countries to be covered and Euro 2012 betting previews are being published daily!