Sweden and Aston Villa captain Olof Mellberg has spoken about how he feels Sweden will do in the World Cup Finals, where they have been drawn in Group B against England, Trinidad and Tobago and Paraguay.

It is 38 years since England beat Sweden anywhere, and you might imagine the Swedes are bursting with confidence about meeting the English again in the first round of this summer's World Cup finals. This is not the case. In fact, Sweden's captain Olof Mellberg is without doubt very apprehensive about their Group B encounter in Cologne on June 20.

Mellberg, 28, who also captains Premiership side Aston Villa has first-hand knowledge of Premiership football, and knows only too well how many world-quality players that have emerged into the England team since the countries last met, a 1-1 draw in the group stage of the 2002 World Cup in Japan/Korea.

“It’ll be different this time,” said Mellberg, “because we play England in the last group game. At the last World Cup we played them in the first. Hopefully, it’ll be a case of us both being qualified by that time. I think that’s what we both hope. One way or another, though, it will be a different game.

“I also think it will be different because England are stronger than they were when we played them in Japan. They’ve got a better team now. Young players like (Wayne) Rooney, (Fran) Lampard, (Steven) Gerrard and (John) Terry have taken big, big steps. They are key players in the biggest sides in England, the biggest teams in the world.”

Mellberg is also aware of how few Swedes now play in Europe’s top leagues, with most of the Sweden squad currently playing their club football in Sweden.

“Games against England are always tough, but it’ll be tougher than ever for us now because I think it's a really good chance for England to do well.

“We look OK. We’ve still got some big players in Larsson, Ibrahimovic, Ljungberg and a few more. Our team might not look as good as England on paper, but we’ve been solid and performed consistently for quite a few years now.”

Though Mellberg admits that the lower standard of league football in which most of the Swedish players are playing could be a disadvantage. “We don't have that many players now playing in the biggest leagues in Europe,” he said. “There are quite a few playing in Denmark and Sweden. It's just me and Freddie here in England, Ibrahimovic at Juventus and Larsson at Barcelona. So there are not many of us outside Scandinavia. I still think we’ve got a good side, but we are definitely not one of the favourites.”

Mellberg says he and Ljungberg are now good friends again after their widely publicised punch-up during training in the last World Cup. “We didn't get along,” he said smiling, “but it was just a short spell… 10 seconds or something.”

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