Sweden meet England’s Three Lions in their last and decisive World Cup Group B match on Tuesday evening in Cologne’s Rhein-Energie-Stadion in a match that England, who are already through to the last sixteen, will be hoping to secure a long awaited win over Sweden.

Sweden only need a draw to guarantee a place in the last sixteen, but a loss may suffice if Trinidad and Tobago fail to win by two goals in their Group B match against Paraguay in Kaiserslautern.

England haven’t beaten Sweden for 38 years and the Swede's will be hoping to extend that run to 12 consecutive matches, but England will want to break that long-standing record.

England have started the World Cup in a rather ponderous fashion, winning with an own-goal in their first match against Paraguay and leaving it late before scoring twice in their match against Trinidad and Tobago, but England head coach Sven Goran Eriksson is not worried about the match against his compatriots and thinks things will improve.

"We will be better and better…wins give you more confidence.

“The tournament has just started and we've got a lot of players who haven't played competitive football for a long time,” said the Three Lions boss.

The last time England defeated Sweden was back in the year that England hosted and won the World Cup Finals, in 1968, in a match they won 3-1, with Sweden winning their last match against England with a 1-0 win in March 2004.

Manchester United’s Gary Neville will miss the encounter after failing to recover from injury meaning that Liverpool’s Jamie Carragher will retain his place at right-back.

Steven Gerrard will be rested for the match along with his Liverpool team-mate striker Peter Crouch, with Bayern Munich’s Owen Hargreaves expected to take Gerrard’s place in midfield.

The big news for England is that Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney is expected to be fit enough to start the match and will partner Michael Owen up-front for England.

Sweden are likely to be without Zlatan Ibrahimovic after the team doctor said that he was doubtful for the England clash but said he is optimistic his groin injury would not keep him out longer than that, should Sweden progress.

Marcus Allback, who was excellent after coming on for the injured Ibrahimovic at half-time against Paraguay, is likely to start the match and, apart from that, the team is likely to be unchanged from the one that beat Paraguay 1-0.

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