Zlatan Ibrahimovic played from start in Sweden’s game against Georgia on Thursday and it didn’t exactly go as planned. They lost 2-0 and will now have to beat Spain tomorrow in order to secure direct qualification to the World Cup.
Janne Andersson’s men were very poor on Thursday evening and Ibrahimovic didn’t have a huge impact on the game either. He played the full 90 minutes but fortunately, it doesn’t look like he will play from start tomorrow.
According to Sportbladet, the manager has decided to go with Juventus winger Dejan Kulusevski as the partner for Alexander Isak up front. Not a huge surprise, seeing as Ibrahimovic normally doesn’t play from start for two consecutive games.
Spain are currently one point ahead of Sweden and this means that the latter need to win in order to secure direct qualification. Their spot in the playoff has already been secured amid Greece’s loss to Spain.
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Love Ibra as a Milan player, couldn’t care less about his international career. But from the perspective of an Italy fan, I’d much rather have Sweden than Spain in the play-offs (which is where Italy are headed!)