How the Swedish media reacted to Victor Lindelof’s performance against Spain

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Last week Victor Lindelof made a costly error when Sweden were trying to get back into the game against Georgia.

He gave the ball away when trying to play out from the back and Georgia went onto double their lead and secure a 2-0 win.

The result knocked Sweden off the top of the group – but they had a second chance to qualify for the World Cup last night, if they won away in Spain.

Spain beat Sweden 1-0

Spain won the game thanks to a late goal from Alvaro Morata. A draw would not have been enough for Sweden.

Lindelof and Sweden now face having to go through the lottery of the play-offs, from which just three teams out of 12 will qualify.

He will join Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal, who lost their final group game 2-1 at home to Serbia.

Reaction to Lindelof’s performance

Lindelof was heavily criticised after the defeat to Georgia, and abuse on social media was so intense that FotbollSkanalen reported that the Swedish FA were considering reporting offenders to the police.

Lindelof told a press conference ahead of the Spain game: “It’s pretty normal in the world I live in. There are many who write, think and think. It’s not something I put any energy into.”

While Sweden lost 1-0 to Spain last night and fell into the play-offs, the view was that Lindelof played a lot better.

FotballSkanalen rated Lindelof’s performance as ‘very good’ giving him a 4/5, having rated his performance against Georgia just a 1/5.

The report read that Lindelof, “Removed ball after ball that Spain tried to threaten with. The captain was also very good with the ball at his feet. Safe and quiet.”

FotMob rated Lindelof as Sweden’s best performer with a 7.7 player rating.

He won nine duels, made two tackles, and made four successful dribbles.

While he will return to Manchester United on the back of two losses, he will be a lot more satisfied with his most recent performance.

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