Gyokeres and Isak are unlucky, Sweden is 99% eliminated from the 2026 World Cup

Sweden have only collected 1 point since the start of the campaign. Therefore, the pressure to beat Kosovo is huge. This team owns the most expensive stars in the world such as Isak, Elanga, Gyokeres…, and has home field advantage so they are expected to get 3 points easily.

But as usual, Sweden played poorly. The stars Isak and Gyokeres played their own game, while Kosovo was much more effective on the counter-attack. In the 32nd minute, Veldin Hoxha assisted Fisnik Asllani to score from close range. A few minutes later, the visitors had another golden opportunity to double the gap, but the home team's goalkeeper blocked Vedat Muriqi's powerful shot, and Leon Avdullahu, when rushing in to shoot, hit the post. The first 45 minutes of the match ended with a score of 0-1 in favor of Kosovo.

In the second half, Sweden coach John Dahl Tomason made three substitutions, bringing on Anthony Elanga, Rohny Bardghji and Saletros to strengthen his attack.

However, although the home team created more chances in the second half, Kosovo's defense and goalkeeper Aro Muric showed excellent form. They completely gave up the midfield to their opponents, playing aggressively in front of the penalty area to block. Therefore, despite attacking the goal 9 times, Sweden only created 1 clear chance. In the 90th minute, Isak had a beautiful shot, but Aro Muric made a spectacular save to keep the net intact.

No more goals were scored until the end of the match and Kosovo had won 3 precious points. They firmly established themselves in 2nd place with 7 points, 6 points ahead of Sweden and superior in the additional index. Thus, Sweden only had a chance to continue on theory. They had to win both remaining matches and hope Kosovo lost the remaining 2 matches so that the additional index was lower than theirs. This was a very unlikely possibility.