“The players should be ashamed of their efforts”
Updated 21.28 | Published 18.42
Share the article
Save the article
BAKU. 0–3 in the EC qualifier away to 120-ranked Azerbaijan.
Sweden suffered one of its worst losses ever after a nightmare start in Baku.
Now Janne Andersson admits that he lacks a certain type of player in the team.
– I would like to have a few more to steer the ship, he says.
Janne Andersson’s last away game as national team captain.
Then Sweden scored the first goal against Azerbaijan after only two minutes.
Victor Nilsson Lindelöf received a back pass but set it up. Renat Dadashov easily took the ball from the Swedish team captain and played it to Emin Mahmudov who made it 1-0.
It would get worse for Sweden, and quickly.
Aleksej Isayev ran through in depth and played forward Renat Dadashov who made it 2-0 in the sixth minute. The goal was VAR-reviewed for a while, but Isajev was judged to have been on the right side and the goal stood.
“The players should be ashamed”
– Seeing our national team so uninspired and unmotivated is far from acceptable. When they sit there, the players should be ashamed of their efforts, says expert Bojan Djordjic in the broadcast.
Ten minutes into the second half, Sweden got a ticket into the game when Behlul Mustafazade was sent off after hacking down Viktor Gyökeres. At first the referee pointed to the penalty spot, but it was changed to a free kick which Emil Forsberg shot over the crossbar.
Historically bad
But despite a man more, it was Azerbaijan who scored in the final stages of the match when Mahmudov fired in the final score 3-0 from basically halfway.
The loss is a historic low point for Sweden. Azerbaijan is ranked 120 in the Fifa world rankings and Sweden has never lost against such a low-ranked opposition since the world rankings were introduced 30 years ago.
Sportbladet met Janne Andersson at the press conference after the match.
Is this your worst effort with you as the national team captain?
– It is always difficult to rank. But as I said before, Azerbaijan have been pretty good at home and lost by small margins but this time they had the margins with them. I am hugely disappointed with our effort, of course. It’s very sad.
Were there any signs of this before the match, for example in the upload?
– We absolutely did not see it coming. I won’t say we’re shocked because that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but very surprised. I never leave any players out, “because then you have to shoot me”, I usually tell them. But of course I’m disappointed in how we acted in several situations that made it this way. That we then cannot turn it around with so much time makes me even more disappointed.
“Shoot me”
You only made three substitutions even though it looked like it did – can that be seen as a lack of trust in the players on the bench?
– I have enough of that. What we want to do, but we don’t do well enough, is to double on the edges and get to post plays. When we did that a few times at the end, we created situations. Then I thought that the players who were in those positions are the ones who create those conditions best. If we just do what we have to, the players who are on the pitch will probably be able to do it well enough. But we need to get the ball into their box more often.
From the sideline it felt like there were no players who got pissed off and took it when you were 0-2 down. Can you miss characters like Sebastian Larsson and Mikael Lustig in a match like this?
– A player like Sebastian Larsson is an asset in all matches regardless of what happens. I think there are several players trying to get hold of it. But there’s been some in this the last 1.5-2 years with our players, that I’d like to have a few more to steer the ship. I don’t mean that you need to get pissed off and yawn and scream because that’s not always so constructive. But that you are clearer in how we should play. It disappoints me today that we don’t follow through on the game plan we have clearly enough. Individual mistakes happen on a football pitch but we are not clear enough how to bring this home. It disappoints me.
The last away game as national team captain and it’s the players out on the pitch who have to do the job – do you feel let down by the players?
– No absolutely not. Shoot me, I’m in charge. I will never leave any players out.
Ahead of the match against Estonia – are you a national team captain reshuffling the team after a goal-scoring effort like this?
– We’ll see. We get to analyze this match first. It’s too close for me to say.
2023-11-16 18:45:00
#players #ashamed #Sweden #sawed #humiliation
