Graham Potter has two of the Premier League's most expensive strikers available to him and on Friday night both of them scored. Sweden beat Romania 2-1 to open their Nations League campaign, with Alexander Isak and Viktor Gyokeres getting the goals and Dennis Man briefly making it awkward in between.
Isak scored in the 20th minute. Yasin Ayari, the Brighton midfielder, played him in behind, and the finish past Ionut Radu was as clean as anything he has done this season. He has four goals in five Premier League games since Liverpool paid £125m for him, and whatever anyone thought of that number in August, he is currently doing the only thing that can justify it.
Romania get back in, briefly
Nine minutes after Isak's goal, Dennis Man equalised.
For a while it looked like being one of those international nights where the form on paper counts for nothing and the crowd gets quieter and quieter. Romania are not a bad side and they had come to make it uncomfortable rather than survive it.
Gyokeres ended that just before half-time, and the goal was not one Radu will want to see again. The Romania keeper made a mess of it, Gyokeres was alert to the loose ball, took a touch and finished from close range. Two goals for two strikers who have spent large parts of this season being discussed rather than picked.
Gyokeres needed this more
The Arsenal striker has appeared twice from the bench in five Premier League games. That is not what anybody expected when he moved, and an international week where he scores with one of his first real chances is worth more to him than the scoreline suggests. Strikers are rhythm players. Ten minutes here and twelve minutes there does not build rhythm; ninety minutes for Sweden with a goal in it does.
For Potter, the English coach who took the Sweden job after leaving West Ham, it is a first win of the campaign and a tidy one. He has attacking options most managers at this level would take without asking about anything else, and the question has always been whether he can get both of those strikers scoring in the same team. On Friday he did.
Poland at home on Monday
The win puts Sweden top of League B Group 4 with a home game against Poland to come on Monday night. Win that and the group starts to look like theirs. Poland drew 0-0 with Bosnia-Herzegovina on the same evening, so the visitors arrive without much momentum of their own.
Romania will feel they gave one away. They were level, they had a goalkeeping error in them, and they were punished for it before the interval rather than after it. Against a front line carrying this much Premier League money, the margin was never going to be generous.
Match facts: Sweden 2-1 Romania, Uefa Nations League League B Group 4, Friday 25 September 2026. Alexander Isak (Liverpool) scored in the 20th minute, set up by Yasin Ayari (Brighton), past Romania goalkeeper Ionut Radu. Dennis Man equalised nine minutes later. Viktor Gyokeres (Arsenal) scored just before half-time after a Radu error. Isak has four goals in five Premier League games this season following his £125m move; Gyokeres has made two substitute appearances in Arsenal's opening five league games. Sweden, managed by Graham Potter, top the group and host Poland on Monday. Source: BBC Sport.
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