The Match
Malmo welcome the Swans fresh from a 3-1 league win over lowly Halmstads, which will have served to restore some confidence after a thorough drubbing in SA1. They did pick up a couple of injuries though, and the magnitude of the deficit heading into this second leg will no doubt serve to put more pressure on a smallish squad full of relatively young players. Either there will be no hwyl from the Swedes (if they feel the result is already a foregone conclusion), or perhaps we will see the other possibility - that a team who already consider themselves out of a cup competition play with a freedom and a zip that's hard to find when you're feeling the weight of expectation bearing down on you. Either way, it'll be a stern test for a team within touching distance of the summit of their league.
Swansea could well take the opportunity to rotate their squad with such a healthy lead in their back pocket. With the added competition for places, rotation can no longer be looked at as a negative as we have genuine strength in depth. With morale high, a team as interchangeable as the Swans' does lend naturally to improvement, as players push each other harder throughout the week in training. We could see a number of changes tomorrow - Ben Davies may make way for Neil Taylor, with Chico Flores possibly making his return from injury. Jose Canas and in particular Alejandro Pozuelo impressed off the bench in the first leg, and they'll also be hoping they did enough to see them into the first XI this time around, while Ki Sung-Yueng & Jonathan De Guzman are no doubt eager to get some minutes under their belt.
Prior Form (most recent at top)
Swedish League Malmo FF 3 - 1 Halmstads
Europa League Swansea 4 - 0 Malmö FF
Swedish League Gefle 2 - 0 Malmö FF
Europa League Hibernian 0 - 7 Malmö FF
Swedish League Gefle 2 - 0 Malmö FF
Europa League Hibernian 0 - 7 Malmö FF
Europa League Malmö FF 2 - 0 Hibernian
Europa League Swansea 4 - 0 Malmö FF
Friendly Reading 0 - 3 Swansea
Friendly Exeter City 0 - 2 SwanseaFriendly Reading 0 - 3 Swansea
Friendly Yeovil Town 0 - 5 Swansea
Friendly ADO Den Haag 0 - 1 Swansea
Team News
Malmo could be without the lively Tokelo Rantie after the diminutive forward injured his ankle in the win over Halmstads, while Magnus Eriksson could also miss out. Rikard Norling could well shuffle his pack with the scoreline so heavily in Swansea's favour, so he could spring some selection surprises.
Swansea will be without Pablo Hernandez, who failed to travel with the squad after failing to recover from a groin injury in time, while Jonjo Shelvey looks set to miss out due to illness. Chico Flores could make a timely return from a thigh injury with Manchester United starting to loom on the horizon.
Completely guessed lineups
As with the 1st leg, my knowledge of the Malmo squad is so limited it's pointless predicting their lineup.
"Straight from the horse's mouth"
Angel Rangel was keen to point out how seriously the Swans are taking the second leg:
“There will be no easing up. We played very well in the first leg and we have got a big advantage in the scoreline, but we still have a job to do out in Sweden.
“This group of players certainly won’t be heading out there thinking it’s all over; there will be no easing up. Malmo are at home and they will want to put in a strong performance. Every player in this squad knows that they have a massive challenge to be included in the manager’s starting XI, so every opportunity we get we must take.
“You look around the squad and there is a lot of quality in every position, so whoever gets to play in Sweden will be looking to impress, and we know we will have fantastic support out there – as we do in every away game. but we appreciate our fans have spent a lot of money to get to Sweden to support us, and we want to put in a performance that will send them home happy.
"The pre-season has gone very well for us, and that really showed in the first leg against Malmo. I don’t think I’ve seen the squad as fit as they have been at this stage of the season before, so we are feeling very good and positive, and I think it’s important that we come away from Malmo with a performance and result that continues the good work we have already put in before we start the league season. It will give us an excellent platform to start the season.” Angel Rangel
Swansea captain Ashley Williams:
"They (Malmo) can score goals. We have seen that in the tie before [against Hibs], so we will go there and be as professional as we can and not take anything for granted."
Malmo boss Rikard Norling:
"We are giving it a serious try and bigger miracles have happened, but our focus is to play better than we did last week, especially offensively. This is a fun match to play. We are facing a team from the Premier League and that's always stimulating.
"We are playing really well at the moment and on Thursday the performance is the most important. If we win 5-0 and move on to the next round we'll dance together.
"If we'll win 2-0 and gets knocked out, but if the performance is good, then that's what we have to focus on."
Malmo captain, Jiloan Hamad:
"It was more difficult to go and win the ball in the first leg than we are used to, however when we ourselves had it, there was actually more time than we thought. Often we rushed the ball away in one touch when it really was time to make something more of it and we need to do that in this game."
Analysis
A quick glance at the soundbites coming out of the Malmo dressing room leads me to believe that despite their 4-0 drubbing last week they're still full of confidence, and I can understand that. They've been in great form in the league, have done well against British opposition in the Europa League up until now and the Swansea result definitely stands out as something of a "freak result" from their point of view - but was it? They didn't manage a shot on target and Vorm has admitted it was at points a joy to watch from his viewpoint, so it'll take a much stronger effort on their part if they're to swing the tie even a little in their favour.
You can't discount the impact a vociferous home crowd will have on any matchup, but I just can't see anything other than a Swans win here. What players take the field for the Swans is anyone's guess - competition for places is so fierce that even with Pablo Hernandez & Jonjo Shelvey missing Laudrup may still be weighing the pro's and con's of various midfield permutations.
An early Swansea goal will kill this tie, and I'm expecting it to be honest. Bony and Michu showed enough in their first competitive outing together to suggest a fine partnership will develop over time, and now that Bony's got a full week's training under his belt I think we'll see him link with the players around him much better than last time out. That's not to say he didn't impress in the first leg though! He showed a deft touch on numerous occasions and the Swansea squad have pointed out that, despite the £12million price tag, he's happy to receive pointers and tuition from his team-mates in terms of where he should be on the pitch given the team's system.
That could well mean that we see an even more impressive display of attacking football tomorrow night. Here's hoping...