Switzerland will be looking to make it back-to-back wins at the start of their 2022 World Cup qualification when they host Lithuania on Sunday night.
Vladimir Petkovic's side opened their Group C challenge with a 3-1 victory away to Bulgaria on Thursday, while Lithuania suffered a 4-0 defeat to Kosovo in a friendly on Wednesday.
Match preview
© Reuters
Switzerland made the perfect start to their Group C campaign on Thursday, recording a 3-1 win over Bulgaria in Sofia to rise to the top of the section, level on points with Italy.
Petkovic's team did the damage in six first-half minutes, with Breel Embolo, Haris Seferovic and Steven Zuber all finding the back of the net in quick succession to take the match away from the home side.
Switzerland will now be looking to move onto six points in the section before finishing this international break with a friendly at home to Finland on March 31.
The A-Team will be present at this summer's European Championships, while they have competed in each of the last three World Cups, reaching the round of 16 in both 2014 and 2018.
A squad full of talent could be a force in the upcoming tournaments, and they have a perfect record against Lithuania, winning the two previous meetings between the two nations in 2014 and 2015.
© Reuters
Lithuania, as mentioned, will enter this match off the back of a 4-0 loss to Kosovo on Wednesday, with the visitors conceding three times in the second half during a difficult 90 minutes.
The fixture was only a friendly, though, as there are only five teams in this World Cup qualification group, meaning that Valdas Urbonas's side will have the chance to make the perfect start on Sunday.
Lithuania have never qualified for the finals of a major tournament, while they recorded just one win during qualification for the 2018 edition, which is an indication of the size of their task in this group.
Rinktine have been victorious in two of their last four matches, though, winning their last competitive game away to Kazakhstan in the UEFA Nations League back in November, and the visitors will have nothing to lose when they head into Sunday's clash in St. Gallen.
- W
- L
- D
- L
- D
- W
- W
- D
- D
- W
- L
- W
- L
Team News
© Reuters
The fact that Switzerland finish the month with a friendly against Finland rather than another competitive fixture means that Petkovic is unlikely to make wholesale changes for this match.
The head coach could decide to freshen his team, with Silvan Widmer, Djibril Sow and Denis Zakaria potentially coming into the starting XI.
There are unlikely to be any changes in the final third of the field, though, with Seferovic and Embolo again expected to be joined by Liverpool attacker Xherdan Shaqiri.
As for Lithuania, there will be a number of changes from the side that suffered a 4-0 defeat to Kosovo in a friendly on Wednesday evening.
The XI could have a similar look to the one that took to the field against Kazakhstan in their last competitive match, with Fedor Cernych wearing the captain's armband from an advanced position.
Cernych has scored nine times in 60 appearances for his national team and is expected to be joined by Karolis Laukzemis, Gratas Sirgedas and Arvydas Novikovas in the forward positions.
Switzerland possible starting lineup:
Sommer; Elvedi, Akanji, Widmer; Mbabu, Sow, Xhaka, Zakaria; Embolo, Shaqiri, Seferovic
Lithuania possible starting lineup:
Svedkauskas; Mikoliunas, Beneta, Dapkus, Vaitkunas; Simkus, Slivka; Sirgedas, Cernych, Novikovas; Laukzemis
We say: Switzerland 3-0 Lithuania
Lithuania are going to find it very difficult to make an impression in Group C, and they face a very tough assignment away to a talented Switzerland on Sunday. The home side will be in a confident mood following their win in Bulgaria, and we are expecting them to put another three points on the board here.
Top tip
Matt Law
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Switzerland win with a probability of 58.28%. A draw had a probability of 23.2% and a win for Lithuania had a probability of 18.56%.
The most likely scoreline for a Switzerland win was 1-0 with a probability of 12.38%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (10.98%) and 2-1 (9.75%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (11%), while for a Lithuania win it was 0-1 (6.21%). The actual scoreline of 1-0 was predicted with a 12.4% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 1-0 win for Switzerland in this match.
