There are familiar scenes at the National Arena in Solna. Sweden plays football and Viktor Gyökeres scores a goal.
Against Romania, he stayed in front just before half-time and pushed in 2-1 to Sweden on a return from Lucas Bergvall's finish. The ball went into the goal via a Romanian player's forehead, but the Swedish attacking star still "got" the goal officially.
- It's always nice to score a goal, says Gyökeres after the match.
- It felt good today and it was nice. It was a good finish from Lucas (Bergvall) and I was in a good position at the far post. But yes, it was nice to play and it was fun out there.
He has arrived at the Nations League gathering in a somewhat unusual position. Although he was Arsenal's top scorer last season when the team won the Premier League, this autumn he has mostly been relegated to the substitutes' bench.
Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta has instead had German Kai Havertz as first choice in the attack. Once Gyökeres has been allowed to play, he has not impressed and the criticism in the English media has sometimes been harsh.
- Of course you can be influenced if there is a lot coming and you read it, but that's not something I do. And, if you do well you get plaudits and if you don't score goals as a striker and don't perform as they expect then of course there will be criticism. That's how it goes all the time for all footballers. It's normal, he says.
Standing on the sidelines has been tough.
- You always want to be on the pitch as a footballer. That's how it is. Obviously I need to do better, and I want to do that too, no problem.
- It is clear that you want to play football and want to play as much as possible, so hopefully that will happen as well.
Given that it was a bit slower for you at Arsenal, is it extra nice to come here to the national team then?
- No matter what, it's always fun to be here. It's always fun to play with the national team.
- This group gives a lot of energy, positive energy. One enjoys. That's why it's fun to be here. And nice to win.
The current national team collection is long. After the victory against Romania, Sweden will play three more international matches in the Nations League group. The next one will already come on Monday evening when Poland will come to Solna, in a repeat of the playoff match last spring that took Sweden to the WC.
Viktor Gyökeres played 76 minutes against Romania and is hungry for more, even if the games are now close.
- It felt good physically and I felt involved. It was fun to be out there playing. I think I combined well with Alex (Isak) and created quite a few dangerous attacks.
Offensively, Sweden played a good game against Romania, but once again conceded a ball behind.
- It feels like we lose the ball sometimes in certain situations where we can do better. So we have to create more and score more goals simply, so that it's not 2-1 at the end and it gets a bit nervous. I think that's what we can develop, says Viktor Gyökeres.
When he comes back to the club team, his situation may be different. Kai Havertz has had to leave Germany's national team after being injured in the match against the Netherlands.
However, that is not the way Gyökeres wants to get playing time.
- I haven't heard anything about him but I hope it's nothing serious because he's an important player for us. We need all players. It is a long season and extremely many matches, so I think everyone will have played enough football when the season is over, says Viktor Gyökeres.
