Elanga ‘scolded’ by Isak for stunning ignorance in Sweden draw as Potter laughs off stupidity – ‘Dear me’ | OneFootball

Alexander Isak has admitted to “scolding” Anthony Elanga as the Newcastle star revealed he “didn’t know” that a draw was enough to see Sweden qualify for the last 32 at the World Cup.

It was Elanga who scored Sweden’s stunning equaliser, cancelling out Daizen Maeda’s well-worked opener for Japan.

The result meant Japan finished second in Group F behind the Netherlands, with four points enough for Sweden to finish the group phase as one of the eight best third-placed teams.

But as was clear when Elanga slumped to the ground and beat the ground in frustration at full-time, he was painfully unaware of the state of play.

He told Sportbladet: “I just shouted: ‘Come on, we can go for more’. I’m glad we’re through, I didn’t know that at the end.”

As Sweden captain Victor Lindelof also confirmed, Sweden boss Graham Potter revealed that they had a meeting ahead of the game to go through their qualification scenarios as he saw the funny side when asked about Elanga’s reaction.

He said: “That explains a few things. We couldn’t have been clearer, but he was obviously thinking of something else. Bless him. I love him at the moment but, dear me.”

‘Outstanding’ Gyokeres

Analysing the game itself, Potter added: “We analysed the game against the Netherlands. We had to defend the box and wide areas better [today]. We decided to use Jacob’s attributes because I think he’s a fantastic goalkeeper. His distribution was very impressive.

“Anthony [Elanga] comes in and offers a counter-attack threat and his pace is destabilising for the opponent.”

Potter went on to praise Victor Gyokeres’ “outstanding performance” and reflected on his team’s shape ahead of the knockout stages, which allows the Arsenal striker to partner Alexander Isak in attack.

Potter said: “I thought he [Gyokeres] was outstanding. Outstanding performance for a back-to-goal centre forward. It’s just amazing.

“The shape we played in the playoffs [World Cup playoffs] so that’s stable,” Potter said.

”In terms of how the players have handled the information we’ve given them [has been amazing], everyone’s been active in the organisation of the team.”