Belgrade. Sweden fell hard against Serbia by 4 to 1.
On the field, there were three new players in the starting lineup who would rather forget about their nightmare debuts.
It’s very sad that the debut came like this, says centre-back Isaac Henn.
Jan Anderson He gave the responsibility to three new players in his eleven start against Serbia. Center back Isaac Heene, 23, went straight into the 11th minute in his first meeting with the national team. Daniel Sundgren, 31, was allowed to jump into the national team that has now started as a right-back and in attack Victor Giocris, 24, got a chance when Alexander Isak left the group injured. At the press conference after the big loss, Jan Andersson carried the appearance of the arrivals:
It was a decent match for them to step in for the first time. We faced a very good team and did not do well for ourselves. Intervening and doing your first fight is, of course, difficult.
“I don’t judge myself”
Sweden went back to 4-4-2 to dominate their defensive game, but it was neither a successful line-up change nor a successful debut for defensive players.
– I don’t judge myself, it’s up to others, but it’s clear that he’s bad in the 1-1 goal, we should be able to control him (Mitrovic) better. We talked about being strong in the fencing match if, in hindsight, we didn’t do better than Serbia. Yeah… what if he makes it clear, we’ve stuck with the game plan to some extent but we can certainly do a lot better, says right-back Daniel Sundgren.
How heavy is it to have a chance in the starting lineup and lose 4-1?
We never want to lose football matches, especially unimportant matches like this. It’s not at all fun to show up for the first time and lose in such big numbers.
“leaves bitterness”
Captain Victor Nelson Lindelof returned to the starting lineup after being injured and for the first time had to form a central defense duo with Isaac Hain. The 23-year-old had mixed feelings after the match:
I’m proud to be able to say I represented Sweden, but that leaves bitterness and not just joy as it should be. We don’t play good football, but we’re not good enough at the fencing game either, so criticism against us may be warranted, says Hein, looking forward to Tuesday’s game against Slovenia.
– It was very sad that the debut was like this, but that is football. The center back says: You get your hits and you get up again.
