Alex Nilsson was surprised that his nation Sweden managed to overcome all hurdles and punch their tickets to Russia 2018.

"Qualifying from a preliminary group which had France and the Netherlands, and afterwards dumping out Italy, it was quite surprising," the former Birkirkara striker said.

Sweden will miss superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic after the coach decided not to call him up since the LA Galaxy player had retired from international football following the disastrous Euro 2016 campaign. 

Nonetheless, Nilsson tips Emil Forsberg as the player who can guide Sweden to another level during this tournament and in future competitions. 

Sweden's Marcus Berg chases Peru's Christian Ramos.Sweden's Marcus Berg chases Peru's Christian Ramos.

You think you know the winner of this year's World Cup? Check out the below prediction game, courtesy of SofaScore.

 

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.