Sweden advance – Anthony Elanga left Sweden’s World Cup match against Japan with a cramp and a confused look—then quickly celebrated after his left-footed goal helped Sweden draw 1-1 and advance to the knockout round. Sweden will now prepare in Frisco, Texas, with their next o
ARLINGTON, TX — There was no reason for Anthony Elanga to fall to the ground. Not in stoppage time of Sweden’s 1-1 draw with Japan, when he was surging forward for a winning goal and went down with a cramp. Not after the final whistle, either, when he looked exasperated.
Sweden is into the next round of the World Cup—even if Elanga didn’t know it yet.
Soon after he was peeled off the grass in North Texas. he was beaming and holding the Man of the Match trophy for a stunner of a goal from where the two lines of the box meet. The joy of salvaging a draw came with a jolt of fear right before the celebration: the momentary thought that everything might slip away.
Sweden manager Graham Potter laughed when asked about Elanga’s confusion in his post-match news conference.
“It couldn’t have been any clearer for him, so he’s obviously thinking about something else. Bless him. I love him at the moment, but dear me.”
Potter’s tone wasn’t just humor. Without Elanga’s goal, it’s not clear Sweden would have found a breakthrough. Instead of knowing they’d progress on four points. Sweden would have faced an anxious Friday and Saturday as one of the third-place qualifiers—waiting to see how many other results needed to go right.
By the time the celebrations settled, the trip north was already part of the plan: Sweden returned quickly to the team’s base camp in Frisco, Texas. Preparation begins there, starting with Elanga getting back on the training ground “to rip more of those shots.”
“It’s more instinctive. You train on things like this every single day. and I think the coach will tell you this is something I work on every single day. ” Elanga said of his left-footed strike. “When you’re in situations like that, it’s more about focusing on the contact more than the shot. I feel like I got good contact on the shot.”.
He added that he was happy the goal went in because it set the tone, and that Sweden had momentum to the end of the game. “Listen, we’ll take the positives of this game and focus on the next game now.”
The match itself also carried a quieter tension for both teams. As the tournament progressed, the sides whose games came later would have been paying closer attention to their situation. That sometimes pushed teams toward conserving energy rather than chasing every opening—and most players on both Sweden and Japan did so for the final 15 minutes or so of the contest in North Texas.
What happens next depends on the other bracket results. Sweden will face either France or Norway in the knockout round.
The group-stage math had been punishing. Finishing top would have meant Morocco—listed here as a 2022 World Cup semifinalist and the 2026 African runner-up. Finishing second would have meant Japan’s fate instead: a meeting with Brazil, a path that also shaped Sweden’s urgency to get through.
The key piece for Sweden wasn’t which opponent they get—it was that they are in. Sweden’s goalkeeper Jacob Widell Zetterström made that clear after his first World Cup start. Potter benched Kristoffer Nordfeldt, and Zetterström responded with a pair of superb saves.
“When you play a World Cup, you’re going to face very good nations sooner or later,” Widell Zetterström said. “No matter who you play, you can’t look too much at the opposition. You have to do what you can do as a group.”
Sweden’s path into the knockout round wasn’t clean. The team entered the match after its second group game—a 5-1 loss to the Netherlands in which Dutch forward Brian Brobbey scored a double within 20 minutes and Sweden was down 4-0 before the hour mark.
In response, Potter changed more than just personnel. He swapped goalkeepers and moved Victor Lindelöf into the midfield. Elliot Stroud came into the starting XI on the left.
The defensive picture shifted further when center back Isak Hien went off in the first half because of a muscle injury. Even with that blow, the changes proved largely positive. Sweden was able to weather a storm of Japanese chances.
Sweden’s goal came from quick, dangerous attacking intent. Ritsu Doan sliced a pass through the Sweden back line for Daizen Maeda. Maeda then had other close-range chances. as did left wingback Keito Nakamura. who lived in Sweden’s final third—creating two chances and putting a shot on goal of his own.
Zetterström described what Sweden carried into the match after the Netherlands defeat.
“We had to look at the things we didn’t do maybe quite as well in the last game and learned from it,” he said. “I think this game we worked slightly more as a unit, we were more compact and, well, I think in the end we had a very good defensive game.”
If Sweden’s defense can hold up against a powerhouse like Kylian Mbappé or Erling Haaland will depend on Hien’s fitness and Potter’s plan for how the team bounces back.
Few analysts will have Sweden as the likeliest to go far from the round of 32, but the team is there. And for now, the emotion comes first.
“The tears can wait.”
Sweden Japan World Cup Anthony Elanga Graham Potter Jacob Widell Zetterström Isak Hien Frisco Texas Man of the Match knockout round
So he got a cramp but still scored? Wild.
I’m confused, did Sweden advance because of him or because Japan choked? Like the article says he didn’t know yet.
Bro the headline makes it sound like Elanga was mad or something, but it was just a cramp? Also “knockout” like… straight up playoffs? I swear I read somewhere Sweden was already through.
Frisco, Texas for training is random lol. But I gotta admit if I scored and then immediately felt cramps I’d be looking around too like where am I. Potter “bless him” like cmon man, dude looked confused after stoppage time, not just thinking about something else.