The Three Lions lost their first game of the Euro Finals against an impressive Portugal side on Thursday, so know they need a win against the Scandinavians to give themselves a chance of progressing to the semi-final.
Sweden v England
UEFA European U21 Championship
Group B
5pm (BST), Sunday 21 June 2015
Olomouc, Czech Republic
Live on BT Sport
And the head coach knows the clash in Olomouc will be equally tricky for his side as Thursday's 1-0 defeat, albeit in a different way.
"The last day or so has been about getting everybody’s emotions ready for this match," explained Southgate.
"It’s easy when there’s a defeat, on the back of a couple of injuries that we’ve had, that you can fear it’s not going your way.
"But we just needed to get everybody together again as a group and explain the realities of the performance against Portugal, statistically and by looking back at the video.
"There was very little in that game and I always focus on performance, by what we did and what we may be able to do better in the next game.
"Now, it’s all about Sweden. We totally respect them and we’ve looked closely at their matches against France and it’s no co-incidence that they managed to beat France and to come back, with ten men, against Italy with the character of their team.
"So we have to be at our very best to win the game."
England U21s boss and winger speak to the media ahead of Sunday's game
Southgate also revealed he will make changes to the line-up for this game, given the varying test on offer and in order to make use of his full squad in the tournament.
"I will make a couple of changes, because I’d prepared to make a couple of changes as the style of the game will be slightly different.
"There’s a need for a different profile of player in a few positions, but other than that, there’s no reason to rip anything up.
"We only have one way of playing and I know there will always be a debate in England about playing two strikers, but we have attacking players throughout the team.
"That’s what we’ve done throughout the campaign, we’ve been one of the highest scorers in qualifying and Thursday was the first game in 18 when we haven’t scored.
"So, we’re not going start ripping it up and changing what we do too much."
The Swedes started their campaign with a 2-1 victory over Italy on Thursday and Southgate and his staff have analysed their opponents thoroughly before Sunday’s game.
"They have different qualities [to Portugal]," he added.
Southgate and Nathan Redmond spoke to the media before Sunday's game with Sweden
"Portugal play a diamond which poses you a different tactical problem but Sweden are a very good side and are good at what they do.
"They will play for a lot of second balls and flood those areas with players.
"They have some good quality and are very resilient and difficult to break down."
Southgate is aware of the pressure on his players to get a result, but is unconcerned about their experience and capability to perform under the spotlight.
"The play-off game [against Croatia] was exactly the same, because we were trying to earn the right to come here," he added.
"We’ve got players who played in a play-off final the other week and players who have played in the Champions League and big Premier League matches.
"So I’m comfortable that, for a lot of them, they’ve been in this scenario before and they can draw on that experience.
"I know the players will do what they do every time they take to the field and will look to take control of possession and we’ve got to have the ruthless edge in front of goal that we perhaps didn’t have in the first game."
