Teams
Sweden had a fairly catastrophic qualification campaign by their standards, drawing just twice and losing their other four games, finishing bottom of their group. Jon Dahl Tomasson was relieved of his duties during the campaign, making way for former Brighton and Chelsea manager Graham Potter to take his place. Thanks to their Nations League campaign though, they still managed to qualify for the play off stages where they managed to overcome Ukraine by 3-1, after which they took on Poland at home. A late Gyokeres goal was enough to make it 3-2 and send Sweden to their thirteenth World Cup. Sweden have gotten out of the group stages in each of the four tournaments they have qualified for since 1990, but they will also be glad to have made it to a major tournament having missed out on the last two.
Gyokeres was the hero of the play offs, scoring a hattrick against Ukraine in the 3-1 win in the semi final match, whilst he also scored the winning goal with two minutes to go against Poland to guarantee passage in that narrow win. Whilst much focus as been on Aleksander Isak in recent years, particularly after his mega money move to Liverpool, he is returning from a serious injury and may not be quite at his peak when he returns. Conversely, Gyokeres has been an essentially member of the Arsenal side who, earlier this year, were battling for trophies on four fronts.
