Sweden vs Romania prediction and predicted line-ups: Hagi meets Sweden again 32 years after USA '94, Nations League

Thirty-two years after Stanford, Gheorghe Hagi meets Sweden again, this time from the dugout. Graham Potter's side host Romania on Friday 25 September in the opening round of the 2026/27 Nations League, Hagi's first competitive game since he was brought back in April following the death of Mircea Lucescu. In March Sweden reached the World Cup by beating Poland 3-2 in the play-off final; Romania had gone out a round earlier, 1-0 in Turkey.

Sweden vs Romania: kick-off time and venue

Sweden vs Romania kicks off at 19:45 UK time (20:45 Central European time) on Friday 25 September at the Strawberry Arena in Solna, the former Friends Arena. It is Group B4 of League B in the Nations League, with Poland and Bosnia and Herzegovina: the winners go up to League A and the runners-up into a promotion play-off. The referee is the Czech official Ondřej Berka, with Italy's Michael Fabbri on VAR.

Team news

Potter has lost Braga's Gustaf Lagerbielke, who played the full 90 minutes in all six of Sweden's competitive games in 2026. He has a groin problem, and on Monday 21 September Potter all but ruled him out: “Det ser ut som att han missar Rumänien hemma” (“It looks like he'll miss Romania at home”). Salzburg's John Mellberg, 20, son of Olof, has been called up in his place. Isak Hien, who was injured at the World Cup and has had surgery, is also out, along with Anthony Elanga and Dejan Kulusevski, while Besfort Zeneli is a doubt with a sprained ankle.

Romania are without Denis Drăguș, who has a left knee injury, and the injured Florinel Coman.

Sweden vs Romania predicted line-ups

There is no Sweden XI that stands up: the two full predictions disagree on the system, one a 4-3-1-2 and the other a 3-5-2, and the second still includes Lagerbielke. Lindelöf, Gudmundsson, Ayari, Bergvall, Isak and Gyökeres are the fixed points. Stoke's Viktor Johansson is the only goalkeeper with recent caps, though nothing has been confirmed, and Starfelt, Ekdal and Mellberg are the other centre-backs alongside Lindelöf. Potter said on 16 September that Bologna's Emil Holm might not be able to manage all four games.

The Romanian press say Hagi is preparing a back five. The two Romanian previews agree on nine names, Radu; Rațiu, Fiorentina's Radu Drăgușin, Burcă, Bancu; Răzvan Marin, Stanciu, Ianis Hagi and Vlad Dragomir, although one of them has a question mark over Dragomir. They differ on the fifth defender, Racovițan or Ghiță, and the centre-forward, Frosinone's Daniel Bîrligea or Louis Munteanu. The official line-ups are released about an hour before kick-off.

Head-to-head and form

The last meeting was Sweden's 2-0 win in Bucharest on 15 November 2019, in Euro 2020 qualifying. Their last meeting at a major tournament was the 1994 World Cup quarter-final at Stanford: 2-2 after extra time and Sweden through 5-4 on penalties, with Hagi captain and one of Romania's takers. At this summer's World Cup Sweden beat Tunisia 5-1, lost 5-1 to the Netherlands, drew 1-1 with Japan and went out in the round of 32, 3-0 to France. Under Hagi, Romania have only played two friendlies, in June: 1-1 in Georgia and 2-1 against Wales.

Our Sweden vs Romania prediction

Our call is at least two goals, confidence 6 out of 10. Sweden have conceded in all ten of their games under Potter, and let in ten in four matches at the World Cup. Lagerbielke and Hien are both missing from their defence. The rest of the round is in our matchday one preview.

Every game with our calls is on the Nations League page. The record of settled calls is in the results history, and our calls on individual players are in player predictions.