Ståle Solbakken leads one of Europe's top national teams and goes to the World Cup as an outsider in the fight for medals?
Probably.
Is Graham Potter's Sweden this bad?
Raises questions
There are players who could be brought in (Viktor Gyökeres, Victor Nilsson Lindelöf, Alexander Isak, Gabriel Gudmundsson) to strengthen the starting eleven, but with two weeks left until the World Cup opener against Tunisia, the performance was more than substandard. It was also deeply ominous and raises questions.
Like this one:
Does this have anything to do with the national team that will go to the World Cup?
Potter was looking for answers, clear indications of who was primarily competing for a few spots, which were more or less open in his intended starting eleven in Monterrey.
Is Lucas Bergvall a starter as an attacking midfielder? How does debutant Eric Smith fare as an option on the left in defense?
And so on.
The answers are no, no, no.
However, team captain Victor Nilsson Lindelöf was not particularly concerned after the match.
Absolutely no danger. We're working towards something bigger. This was a training match. This is absolutely nothing that will worry us or stick around, he says in Viaplay's broadcast.
“Not feeling well at all”
Potter, on the other hand, was brutally honest in the halftime interview.
"We're playing a team that's better than us, in every way, to be honest. We'll learn from this half, but right now it doesn't feel good at all," Potter said.
Norway - without stars Haaland and Ødegaard - is enjoying having its best national team generation since the late 1990s. A machine that outmaneuvered everyone in the qualifiers.
For Sweden, the cool June evening at Ullevål was nothing more than a rude awakening. Was the playoff success just a happy coincidence?
The Norwegians ran and played an unsynchronized, confused Swedish team to pieces.
Jørgen Strand Larsen headed in to make it 1–0, Antonio Nusa turned away an unsupported Gustaf Lagerbielke and thundered in to make it 2–0.
That left 73 minutes to play.
Norway were a level better in every department, and Strand Larsen headed in to make it 3–0.
Isak showed class
Potter changed seven players at halftime. Norway sent in an almost new team after 60 minutes.
The substitution was in Sweden's favor. A new match began. Sweden A vs. Norway B. The bleeding was stopped and Alexander Isak showed his class from the penalty spot after cutting in from the left.
"Those areas are my favorite areas. I'll be able to do things there. It's much needed to put it there," Isak said.
A goal that should not be underestimated in the healing of a shattered self-confidence that is now beginning. Greece awaits in the World Cup qualifiers on Thursday.
