Sweden officially call up three Manchester United players for Nations League bronze medal games

It has not been the FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign for the Swedish men’s national team that they envisaged.

Despite boasting talent such as Alexander Isak, Anthony Elanga, Dejan Kulusevski and Viktor Gyokeres, they have failed to secure automatic qualification for next summer’s tournament in the USA, Canada and Mexico.

Despite boasting an array of talent, with three of the four moving clubs this summer for a combined fee of over £200 million, they failed to win a single one of their six games of the qualification stage, only being able to muster up two draws.

Despite finishing bottom of their qualification group, they will be taking part in the playoff round in March, as a result of their UEFA Nations League performance where they finished top of Group C1 with five wins and one draw from six games.

Meanwhile, things are a lot more positive for the Swedish Women’s National team, who have revealed their upcoming squad for the final round of the Nations League.

With two bronze matches against France, they will look to give themselves the best preparation possivle for the 2027 Women’s World Cup qualifiers, which start in 2026.

With third place finishes in three of their last four World Cup appearances, including in their last two, they will be hoping to go two steps further in the 2027 tournament in Brazil.

It is also a national team that has finished third or better in 10 of their 12 appearances at the UEFA Women’s European Championships.

Their recent international performances will be well known to British football fans, having lost 4-0 to hosts England in the 2022 Euros and let a 2-0 first half lead slip to the same opponent in this summer’s edition of the tournament.

They also beat England in the third place playoff at the 2019 Women’s World Cup.

Manager Tony Gustavsson has opted to select a number of young players amid a new dawn of Swedish football, some of whom have a limited number of appearances for their national team. He has opted to select three Manchester United players.

Anna Sandberg, Fridolina Rolfo and Julia Zigiotti Olme have all been selected for their upcoming games against France.

Whilst Rolfo has 103 caps for Sweden and Olme has 50, Sandberg has just eight.

She will be eager to make an impression on their defensive unit after the  retirement of Magdalena Eriksson, who was such a key part to the national team for so long.

It marks a successful start to her season, that saw her score her first goal for United in a Women’s Super League clash against Chelsea.

Meanwhile for Rolfo, who joined in the summer along with Olme, also recorded her first goal for the club this summer in a UEFA Women’s Champions League game against Atletico Madrid.