Isak and Gyokeres ready as Sweden face Netherlands with a knockout spot on the line

Netherlands up next, your team can seal the round of 16 Saturday

Sweden face Netherlands in Houston Stadium on Saturday, 7pm local time (1) (3). A win and you are through to the knockout stage after just two matches. The stakes are that simple. Thousands of fans are packing Ullevi in Gothenburg, hours before kick-off, to watch on the big screen (2). Kick-off is 6pm BST, 7pm in Paris and Berlin (1) (5) (3).

Isak and Gyokeres set the tournament alight

Sweden 5–1 Tunisia in Monterrey. That was the opener, and it sent a message nobody saw coming (5) (6). Alexander Isak was the hero, and Graham Potter is promising more: "It will come more," he said (6). The partnership with Viktor Gyokeres is only getting stronger, Potter believes, and the two together already outscored Sweden's entire qualifying campaign in one night.

Tunisia sacked their coach the morning after

Sabri Lamouchi is gone. Tunisia lost 1–5 to Sweden and the federation acted immediately, replacing him with Hervé Renard ahead of their match against Japan on Sunday morning (7). That is the scale of the damage your team inflicted. Sweden scored five in one match after managing fewer in the whole qualification group.

Defensive cracks under the surface

Victor Nilsson Lindelöf acknowledged issues at the back despite the 5–1 scoreline (6). No panic, Potter's side scored five and won comfortably, but the captain knows Netherlands will test that back line far more than Tunisia did.

CBS picks a breakout name ahead of kick-off

CBS Sports name-checked Yan Diomande of Ivory Coast as a must-watch breakout star at this World Cup, in a piece that also flagged Netherlands' attacking struggles could doom them (8). Sweden fans will take that gladly, an Oranje attack misfiring is exactly what you want to hear hours before the teams meet.

Fan reactions

The match thread on r/Allsvenskan is already up, with fans gathering predictions and nerves ahead of the 7pm kick-off. Over on r/soccer, Dutch manager Ronald Koeman has reportedly vowed to make better substitutions against Sweden after a poor showing in their opener, Swedish fans in the thread are quietly confident that the 5–1 demolition of Tunisia has shifted the pressure entirely onto the Netherlands. Join the discussion