MADRID, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Spain and Sweden kick off their European Championship campaigns on Monday in the Estadio de la Cartuja in Seville after a difficult week that has seen both sides' preparations disrupted by COVID-19 pandemic scares.
Sergio Busquets is temporarily out of the Spain squad after testing positive for the coronavirus a week ago, while Diego Llorente also missed three days after returning a false positive test result.
That meant the Spain squad couldn't work as a group for most of the week and was unable to play their last preparation game (although the under-21 side did play and beat Lithuania in that match which was held on Tuesday night).
Spain coach Luis Enrique would almost certainly have used that game to give minutes to players who didn't start in their previous friendly against Portugal, but it is hard to see him make too many changes to the side that started in that match.
That means Unai Simon will continue in goal with Marcos Llorente, Pau Torres, Aymeric Laporte and Jordi Alba in defense. Rodrigo Hernandez will presumably replace Busquets in central midfield alongside Thiago Alcantara and Fabian Ruiz, with Ferran Torres partnering Dani Olmo and probably Gerard Moreno in attack.
Sweden has also been hit with COVID-19 with Dejan Kulusevski and Mattias Svanberg both testing positive, meaning that neither will play on Monday.
The Scandinavian side could also suffer from the heat, with the game being played in the south of Spain, where the temperature is expected to be over 30 degrees Celsius.
Coach Janne Andersson is likely to play a 4-4-2 with Marcus Berg accompanied up front by Real Sociedad striker Alexander Isak, who knows what it is to win in La Cartuja after forming part of the Real Sociedad side that won the Copa del Rey knockout competition in the ground at the start of April.
Veteran Sebastian Larsson could start in midfield along with Emil Forsberg and Albin Ekdal, while Victor Lindelof will lead the defense alongside the experienced Mikael Lustig. Enditem