In Monterrey, Yasin Ayari set the tone – he both started and ended the goal celebration. Viktor Gyökeres and Alexander Isak entertained with attacking football of the finest brand and substitute Mattias Svanberg sent in 4–1.
Team captain Victor Nilsson Lindelöf does not want to replace Gyökeres and Isak with any other strikers in the world.
Why would he?
One is strong as an ox, the other with a stride like few others and gifted with an outstanding technique.
Mix them and you get an absolutely world-class attacking duo.
The beauty is? They are not the finished product together.
But what they showed and produced together was enough to take the national team a big step closer to the knockout phase of the World Cup.
Things happened right away. Gyökeres came running like a primal force along the left wing, accompanied by a rising roar from the crowd.
He broke inside, but shot high over.
Ayari broke the deadlock
Two minutes later, Isak was involved as the Swedish team got the perfect start.
Isak disturbed goalkeeper Chamakh who pushed the ball out, Gyökeres alertly caught it, but his shot was blocked straight out by a defender.
There came Ayari, who coolly slotted in the redemptive lead. A dream goal on a half-volley – and a dream opening after just under seven minutes in the hunt for a place in the round of 16.
Ayari, who could have played for Tunisia, did not want to celebrate but then fell to his knees and kissed the Mexican turf. The 22-year-old’s fourth international goal could not have come at a more opportune time.
It was also Isak’s 18th.
Benjamin Nygren intercepted the ball outside his own penalty area, lifted it to Gyökeres who passed it on to Isak.
The attacking star drifted inward, shot on the run. Perhaps it was a shot Mouhib Chamakh should have stopped. But none of the approximately 4,000 Swedes at the Monterrey stadium cared, nor did any national team supporter in front of the TV, radio or screens on the other side of the globe.
Reduction gave nerve
But the match was far from won.
Gustaf Lagerbielke doesn’t lose many headers, but he was beaten in the air shortly before the break. Omar Rekik headed in the equalizer, on one of the few Tunisian opportunities in the first half.
Tunisia came into longer attacks more often. Hannibal Mejbri had a lot to deal with.
In the midst of that advantage came the counterattack where Sweden could have grabbed a two-goal lead. But Gyökeres didn’t get the ball to an offside Isak in time.
The collaboration worked even better shortly afterwards, as the duo showed a global audience why they are both top-shelf strikers.
Netherlands next
Isak stole the ball from Ellyes Skhiri, passed it to Gyökeres who decisively sent in 3–1.
Whereupon Svanberg scored 4–1 immediately after his substitution and Ayari got another dream goal.
The national team returns to Dallas later today. A lighter training session awaits at the FC Dallas Stadium base on Tuesday night, local time in Sweden. In Houston on Midsummer’s Day, it’s the Netherlands’ turn.
A significantly trickier task than Tunisia, but if they manage to get a point, the national team is almost through from the group stage.
Nothing is impossible, not with the organization, structure, determination, form and individual brilliance that Graham Potter’s eleven offered when it was time to perform on the biggest stage in world football.
Corrected: In an earlier version, the wrong match in 2002 was stated in the fact box. The correct one is 1–1 against England.
Sweden has played 13 World Cup debuts since the first one in 1934.
The results:
1934: 3–2 against Argentina
1938: 8–0 against Cuba
1950: 3–2 against Italy
1958: 3–0 against Mexico
1970: 0–1 against Italy
1974: 0–0 against Bulgaria
1978: 1–1 against Brazil
1990: 1–2 against Brazil
1994: 2–2 against Cameroon
2002: 1–1 against England
2006: 0–0 against Trinidad and Tobago
2018: 1–0 against South Korea
2026: 5–1 against Tunisia
