Instead of dwelling on the fact that 2–0 became 2–2 and three points stayed at one, Kulusevski was pleased with the positive aspects of Swedish national team football after more than half a year under Jon Dahl Tomasson's regime.
Not least with Yasin Ayari's play and the 21-year-old's first national team goal.
A mistake by the goalkeeper, says Kulusevski and laughs.
No, I'm joking. It was an incredible goal and fun for him. I worked with him this summer, trained twice a day. Everyone should know that what he does doesn't come for free.
"Everything he has fought for"
Today he got paid. Everything he has fought for, the joy he showed. It's life, those seconds, and I'm glad to share it with him, continues the captain.
Considering the created chances, the national team should have secured three points. But a mistake by Viktor Johansson – which he unreservedly took responsibility for – gave Slovakia a lifeline in the match. The home team took advantage of it.
We concede a goal that complicates the entire match. Yet we come out in the second half and are just as good as in the first. We create many chances. They equalize to 2–2, but we try to win the match.
Kulusevski, in some of the best form of his life, enjoyed the match.
This is how it should be. I will take responsibility, try to be as good as possible. I want to decide. I'm just waiting to decide the match, but sometimes it doesn't work out, he says.
On Saturday, the national team will travel to Tallinn and Monday's meeting against Estonia in the Nations League.
Estonia is a match we should and must win. We may not be able to play exactly the same way for 90 minutes. We should talk to Jon and see what we can do to handle it better in the future, says Kulusevski.
Learn from it
Victor Nilsson Lindelöf surprisingly did not get a starting spot against Slovakia.
He came in with half an hour left, when Sweden had 2–1 but the match was in the balance.
I jump in and try to help the team. It was a tough situation to do it, unfortunately we lose our lead. With the chances we had, we should have been able to close the match. A draw feels almost like a loss.
It's something we have to learn from. We must try to get it over 90 minutes, hold tight during those periods when we're a little worse in the matches, says the centre-back.
