Sweden’s impressive debut at the World Cup. They defeated – with the ease reflected in the score – Tunisia 5-1 at the “Estadio Monterrey”, in a match of the 5th group and climbed alone to the top, ahead of the Netherlands and Japan.
The Scandinavians got off to an ideal start, with 22-year-old Brighton midfielder Yacine Ayari scoring a “thunderbolt” after injury time in just 7 minutes (the 2nd fastest goal in the 2026 World Cup and one of the most impressive) and 26-year-old Liverpool striker Alexander Isak in the 30th minute, quickly putting the Tunisians two goals behind.
However, they managed to…come back just before the break (43′), with the header of 24-year-old Maribor defender Omar Rekic, who with his first international goal, made the half-time score (2-1), presenting the conditions for changing the fate of the match.
An attempt that the Africans made – against Sweden, who had stepped up their attacking action – at the beginning of the second half, before the fatal mistake of their captain, Skiri, was ideally exploited by Isak, offering … a ready-made goal to the 28-year-old Arsenal striker Victor Gjokeres (3-1).
Sweden tried and maintained control, Tunisia – with the substitutions of Lamouchi – tried to get back into the game, but again the Scandinavians were the ones who celebrated (85′) with the 27-year-old Wolfsburg midfielder Matthias Svanbeg – who had entered a minute earlier as a substitute), a goal that was initially indicated as offside, but then counted with VAR intervention.
But the player who opened the scoring, Yassine Ayari, was also the one who…closed it (5-1) in injury time (90+6′), scoring again against his father’s country of origin.
Referee: Yael Falcon Perez (Argentina)
Yellow: -Red
:-
The two teams:
Sweden (Graham Potter): Nordfeld, Hien, Lindelof, Lagerbilke, Bernhardsson (90′ Svensson), Kallstrom (84’Svanberg), Ayari, Gudmundsson (64′ Sturm), Nygren (64′ Bergvall), Isak (90′ Elanga), Gjokeres.
Tunisia (Sabri Lamouchi): Chamak, Valery (72′ Mahmoud), Rekic, Talbi, Ben Hamida, Skiri (72′ Atshouri), Khedira (84’Gharbi), Slimane (84′ Chaouat), Hannibal, Abdi, Saad (72′ Tunekti)