Sweden to Class C.
Finland rejoices, Norway is shocked and Denmark calls it a scandal.
A true fiasco, says Alan Olsen, columnist and editor-in-chief at Tipsbladet.
1-1 against Slovenia on Tuesday night means that the Swedish national football team finished last in Group B, relegated to Division C when the next edition of the Nations League is decided in Autumn 2024 and Spring 2025.
This means that Sweden is joint last in the Nordic region with the Faroe Islands.
“Not even fun”
The reactions of our Scandinavian neighbors? Surprise is an understatement.
It is a huge scandal and an incredible defeat for the Swedish national team. A real failure. It’s not worth a proud soccer country like Sweden, says Danish Tipsbladet editor-in-chief and columnist Alan Olsen.
Of course, as a Dane, you can laugh at him and gloat, but it’s almost not funny that there is such a big class difference between Denmark and Sweden at the moment, says Olsen.
Fellow Knut Espen Svegaarden, columnist at VG Norway:
– Downgraded twice in two years shockingly weak by Sweden. Seems like a little crunch. Why Anderson changed the formula for success?
All countries have national teams that swing up and down, at least a little bit. But Sweden had to battle with Serbia and Norway for the group win by now. satisfied players? It seems so, says Svegaarden.
Danish columnist Tipsbladet is not happy with the Danish club’s advantage in the Sweden national team’s starting line-up against Slovenia (Victor CleesonJoel Anderson Christopher Olson).
– Not breathing notch. Denmark does not have a single player from Premier League In the starting line-up against France. In addition to Dejan Kulusevski and Alexander Isak, Sweden is having a hard time producing great talent at major European clubs, says Alan Olsen.
No schadenfreude
At the same time, Sweden has no worse players than Norway, Finland or Iceland, so a lot of the responsibility lies with the coaching staff. Olsen says Zlatan Ibrahimovic has left a huge void.
What would the outcome be in Denmark if you ended up in a similar situation?
– Huge controversy, angry columnists demanded the dismissal of the national team captain, Twitter caught fire …
– But Denmark does not have a tradition of sacking national team leaders. In fact, I’m not sure it would have ended in dismissal, but perhaps the captain of the national team had such a degree that he would have resigned, Olsen believes.
Knut Aspen Svegaarden:
Norway has been in the same situation – several times. We were in Class C the last time with Lasse Lagerbäck as captain of the national team. So I won’t float away here, says VG’s columnist.
The best Finnish lottery
Feedback in Finland?
Ilta-Sanomats model: “Stora Nyheter in Finland! The failure of Sveriges en Fullträff för Berguvarna”
Sveriges 1-1 mot Slovenien och Irlanden 3-2-seger mot Armenien gör at finska landlaget, Huuhkajat (berguvarna) hamnar i andra seedningsgruppen lottningen av EC-kvalet.
“It is of great importance because Finland then avoids ending up in the same group as, say, England or France,” writes Ilta-Sanomat.
The fact that Finland could instead face Sweden, who end up in the third seeded group, is clearly not considered a threat at the moment.
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