Tonight, Blågult plays an important match against Poland in the Nations League. Buoyed by the 2-1 victory against Romania in the opener, Sweden can get a real lift for the national team autumn.
Sweden qualified for the World Cup after defeating Poland in the playoff final last spring. According to the players, a key success factor was the strengthened team spirit. That has continued since then.
We've talked a lot about that. About the team and the group. Before and during the World Cup it worked great. It can easily happen that when you're together for a long time, you can get annoyed and irritated with each other one day, but there were no problems at all, says team captain Victor Nilsson Lindelöf.
“As calm as possible”
Midfielder Benjamin Nygren agrees.
During the World Cup, nothing happened. It was as calm as could be. It's a really good group with really good people. Everyone can talk to everyone. There wasn't a single conflict during the entire World Cup, as far as I know, says Nygren.
Should there be any disagreement between the players, Nilsson Lindelöf knows how to handle it.
We have that respect for each other that if you feel a little worse one day or something, you can go away, then it often resolves itself in a good way. You may keep your problems outside the group, which is important. Then we do a lot of things together all the time that means we have built up this feeling that we have in the group, says Nilsson Lindelöf.
“Working on our identity”
But even though good cohesion can go a long way, we must not forget the football aspect. Something that defender Gabriel Gudmundsson wants to emphasize.
We are working a lot on our identity, I think that was quite clear in the match against Romania. We continue to work on it all the time. In terms of tactics, I think we are taking it step by step all the time, no one expected us to make it to the World Cup but we made it there, says Gudmundsson and continues:
But it's not a "quick fix" either. New faces are coming in, they have to adapt, it's clear that it takes time to develop the tactical part as well, but that's the reality sometimes.
