Hoffenheim's Fisnik Asllani sends Sweden into a serious football crisis in Kosovo's 1-0 win in Gothenburg. His goal sealed the professional fate of a former Bundesliga professional.
14.10.2025, 15:41
14.10.2025, 15:48
dpa
Sweden's national soccer coach Jon Dahl Tomasson is out of a job after another failure in the World Cup qualifiers. It was decided to relieve the 49-year-old of his duties with immediate effect due to the poor results in the qualifiers, the Swedish Football Association (SvFF) announced the day after the 1-0 defeat against Kosovo. The search for a successor to the former VfB Stuttgart striker is to begin immediately.
"National team in free fall"
Kosovo's Fisnik Asllani had exacerbated the already deep crisis of the Swedish national team around its Premier League stars Alexander Isak and Viktor Gyökeres on Monday evening in Gothenburg with his goal of the day. "I've been living with Swedish football for 40 years now - and we've never been worse," said leading Swedish football expert Erik Niva in the World Cup qualifying podcast of the newspaper "Aftonbladet".
It was particularly bitter for the Scandinavians that their offense around Liverpool's 145 million purchase Isak and Arsenal's 65 million man Gyökeres remained goalless for the third time in a row despite 12:0 corner kicks, significantly more possession and shots on goal.
Tomasson: "That kills us"
The team finished bottom of Group B with just one point from four games. "That was a terrible result today. That kills us. We let in easy goals and we also forgot how to score goals," said Tomasson after the game. At the time, he still believed that his playing ideas were the right ones for the team.
Tomasson's support in the team was already crumbling before the recent home defeats against Switzerland (0:2) and Kosovo. Regular goalkeeper Robin Olsen had already announced two weeks ago that he no longer wanted to play for the national team - because of Tomasson. "Jon is a leader I don't want to work under," he said.
At the moment, only the World Cup qualifying mode should give the Swedes hope. As the Nations League group winners, the Swedes still have a chance of making the play-offs in the spring. The prerequisite is that enough higher-placed group winners in the new competition either qualify directly for the World Cup or, as runners-up, have already secured one of the 16 play-off tickets.
