Thursday June 10, 2021
Corona desperation before the start of the EM
Sweden coach calls Ibrahimovic
A reckless “Corona dinner” messes up all of Sweden’s preparations for the European Football Championship. At least two professionals are infected with the corona virus. Because the injured superstar Ibrahimovic is also not available, national coach Andersson now has to reschedule.
The “King” is not available as the nation’s savior. Zlatan Ibrahimovic would have loved to help Sweden’s national soccer coach Janne Andersson out of the Corona emergency and once again played the hero in blue and yellow – but the star striker canceled on the phone with a heavy heart. “We didn’t expect him anyway,” said Andersson after a phone call with the injured striker, “but I called him to be on the safe side.”
Because the need is great so shortly before the difficult European Championship kick-off for the Swedes on Monday (9:00 p.m. / ZDF, MagentaTV and in the ntv.de live ticker) in Seville against Spain. And all because of a dinner with friends: the bottomless recklessness of midfielder Dejan Kulusevski makes the Scandinavians hectic and incomprehensible. With Mattias Svanberg, the professional of Italy’s record champions Juventus Turin has already infected a teammate, further corona infections in the squad cannot be ruled out.
A video on social media, apparently recorded on May 31, showed Kulusevski in an apartment with several people. As national coach Andersson reported, there was a private dinner with some friends at an invitation from Kulusevski’s sister who joined us at short notice.
Six post-nominees and training in small groups
“That should be a bit of a surprise, but it wasn’t a good decision,” said the national coach, who at least in the first group game will have to forego the involvement of Kulusevski and Svanberg, who is under contract with FC Bologna. In the afternoon, Andersson reacted to the explosive personnel situation and nominated six players. Among them are Joakim Nilsson from Arminia Bielefeld, Niclas Hult (Hannover 96) and the former Leverkusen Bundesliga professional Isaac Kiese Thelin.
Until the first whistle, the Scandinavians can only hope that there will be no further failures. To achieve this, there are no longer any indoor activities at the training camp in Gothenburg. Tactical sessions are held in smaller groups, with exercises on the field being more spaced. And the six newcomers must first practice separately from the team under U21 coach Poya Asbaghi.
Meanwhile, on the other hand, there is a cautious sigh of relief from the first preliminary round opponent Spain: Diego Llorente’s new corona test was negative, as the national association announced. A first test of the defensive player had brought a positive result. Llorente then had to be quarantined as had team captain Sergio Busquets.
“A PCR test carried out on Wednesday was negative. The counter-analysis confirmed this result a few hours ago,” it said in an official statement. This suggests that the test carried out on Tuesday indicated a false positive diagnosis. In order to reduce the health risks for the national players, the entire squad is now to receive an initial vaccination. This was announced by Spain’s Minister of Health Carolina Darias.
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