Swedish Tottenham winger Dejan Kulusevski was sad about his national team’s actions. Emil Forsberg, on the other hand, was booed in an NHL match.
The miserable period of the Swedish men’s national football team continued when it lost 0-3 to Azerbaijan in the European Championship qualifying match in Baku on Thursday.
There was no game-like contribution for Sweden in the match, as it had already lost its chance for the EC final tournament.
Azerbaijan is ranked 120th in the Fifa ranking. Sweden, ranked 23rd, had never lost to a country ranked so low.
Azerbaijan got off to a flying start to the match, scoring two goals in six minutes.
Sweden was able to play for more than half an hour with one man advantage, when Bahlul Mustafazada got a red card but couldn’t finish.
Emin Mahmudov put the nail in the coffin with a wonderful midrange shot over the Swedish goalkeeper by Robin Olsen just before the end of the actual game time.
The Swedish media described the match fiasco and nightmarish mixed embarrassed.
Money back?
The Tottenham winger, one of the stars of the Swedish national team Dejan Kulusevski23, admits the team failed in every aspect of the game.
– We will give it our all and then we will play like that. It really hurts, Kulusevski said.
About 50 spectators had traveled from Sweden for the match, and they were bitterly disappointed.
– This is awkward and embarrassing. You always want to give something to your supporters. Our supporters are really nice. I am happy for their support.
The Tottenham star thought that the team might reimburse the expenses of those who traveled to the place.
– If the supporters think so and want it, we can definitely discuss it.
The icon was booed
National team striker Emil Forsberg had to experience the disappointment of the home crowd when he was watching the NHL Global Series match between Detroit and Ottawa at the Globen in Stockholm on Friday.
Some of the spectators started booing Forsberg, who has represented Sweden since 2014. Forsberg, 32, who represents Leipzig in the German Bundesliga, denied that he noticed the crowd’s reaction.
– Right? If they saw the Azerbaijan match, it is quite legitimate. I had fun and met a lot of great people so I didn’t think about it, Forsberg said.
The Azerbaijan match was the first for Sweden since October, when two Swedish supporters were shot in Brussels.
Sweden, which has lost four of its seven EC qualifying matches this year, will face Estonia in its last qualifying match on Sunday.
The match is for the head coach who has guided Sweden since 2016 To Janne Andersson the last at the helm of the national team.
You can see the standings of the European Championship qualification at this link.