England Vs. Sweden, 2011 International Friendly: Preview

England beat Spain. Cats eat dogs. Pigs fly. The Three Lions will win the 2012 European Championships. Etc etc. etc.. Anyway, the hosts were impressive for part of the second half in their 1-0 victory against the European and world champions, and that means everyone is suddenly feeling far more sanguine about their chances in next summer's tournament, in which they'll be a second seed.

Of course, before they get to the Euros, there are more irrelevant friendly matches to play, and at 8:00 PM GMT (3:00 PM EST) on Wednesday England will be squaring off against Sweden. The Swedes are a good bet to actually try to score a goal, which Spain didn't really bother with until the last few minutes of Saturday's match. The Scandavians, who are a potential group-mate of England's, are coming off a 2-0 loss against Denmark in Copenhagen and will certainly be out to take some prestige home by getting a result against a European power, and England are, more likely than not, going to be a little sleepy after tasting sweet intoxicating victory against Spain.

Expect a whole new starting lineup for this one from England - Fabio Capello has made it clear that he'll ring in the changes. Kyle Walker at right back? Sure! Stewart Downing on the left? Sure again! Even John Terry should get to play, which will be nice for everyone who wants to boo him (more so than usual) over the racism allegations he's currently facing.

It's not entirely clear how Sweden will line up, and considering that the starters for each team probably won't last much more than the first half it probably doesn't matter anyway. No matter which side the visitors field, we should get a far more fluid, exciting game than the parade of tiki-taka briefly interrupted by spurts of manliness that we saw on Saturday.