TIANJIN, North China-- Sweden will play a do-or-die battle against Argentina in the second-round of Group E at the Olympic women's soccer here on Saturday.
Sweden, conceding a 2-1 loss to host China in their opener, will have to take three points from the match to survive the group stage.
The Scandinavians tend to lose opening games in big tournaments, but they usually rebound. And with top-class talent Lotta Schelin in the side, the Europeans will be heavy favorites to put Argentina - still developing in the women's game - to the sword.
After their loss to China, head coach Thomas Dennerby said: "I think we still have good chance to reach the knock-out stage."
"We can play better but we must go up one or two steps in defence and offence," Sweden captain Victoria Svensson said.
Much of the media attention will be focused on ace striker Schelin, who scored Sweden's only goal in the opening match although the Chinese had put much attention on defense.
She was often compared to the Swedish men's national team counterpart Zlatan Ibrahimovic in terms of height, technique, creativity and goal sense.
Chinese head coach Shang Rihua said: "Schelin has fast pace and excellent technique, and few defenders could keep up with her."
However, Sweden will play without veteran striker Hanna Ljungberg, who withdrew from the Olympics on Monday because of a right hamstring injury.
The Argentine side, having lost to Canada 2-1 in their opener, hope they could beat the European powerhouse to become a dark horse in the tournament, and a win would also help the South Americans stay in the tournament.
Facing the physically-strong Scandinavians, Argentina needs to count on its better technique, making short passes as many as possible and keeping the ball on the ground.
"We play in the same style as the Argentine men's team," Argentina coach Jose Borrello said after the opening loss to Canada. "We will need to do the same thing next time out when we play a similarly strong Sweden team."
"We don't know what will happen, our aim is to qualify for the next stage," he said.
