Gyokeres & Sweden face uphill battle to reach World Cup | OneFootball

Sweden face an uphill battle to qualify for the 2026 World Cup after a disappointing September break for Viktor Gyokeres’ national side.

Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images

Arsenal’s Viktor Gyokeres has been away with Sweden over the international break, playing 90 minutes against Slovenia on Friday and another full 90 against Kosovo on Monday. Both matches were World Cup qualifiers, kicking off Sweden’s qualification campaign.

Yet that campaign hasn’t gone to plan for the team so far, with Gyokeres providing an assist in a 2-2 draw with Slovenia before a shock defeat to Kosovo.

Gyokeres did have his moments against Kosovo, including creating Sweden’s best chance of the first half. The Arsenal striker played a cut-back pass to Hugo Larsson, who dummied for Anton Saletros to receive and shoot from the edge of the box, but the shot went wide.

Photo by Michael Campanella/Getty Images

But Kosovo were devastating on the counter-attack, racing into a 2-0 lead by half time and maintaining that advantage until the final whistle. Gyokeres ended the match with two shots and two chances created, but no goals or assists.

Liverpool summer signing Alexander Isak was introduced as a second-half substitute, but he couldn’t help to turn the game around either, missing two big chances in the latter stages of the contest.

The result leaves Sweden in crisis mode, despite only having played two games of qualification. Given they’re in a four-team group, they’ll only have six games in total, and they’re already five points behind leaders Switzerland in the only guaranteed qualification spot.

Photo by Eddie Keogh/Getty Images

The major upside at this stage is that Sweden haven’t played any of their home fixtures. Consecutive wins in October at home to Switzerland and Kosovo would paint a significantly brighter picture.

The hope for Sweden will be that Isak is also back fit and firing again by then, reuniting the strike partnership with Gyokeres that was so effective in last year’s Nations League campaign.

From an Arsenal perspective, Isak having a slower start and Gyokeres then getting a summer off might not be such a bad thing. But you’d never actively root for your player to miss a World Cup.