Dejan Kulusevski has made an impressive start to the season, and that continued as he scored twice and set up another in the Nations League as Sweden ran riot at home.
Tottenham attacker goes from strength to strength
While Dejan Kulusevski has long threatened to become an elite attacker, it appears that the Swede has now finally done so, starting to impact games with regularity.
He has been unplayable on a number of occasions for Spurs this season, thriving in his new attacking midfielder role and the new-look Sweden side under Jon Dahl Tomasson has seemingly built around the Tottenham man’s strengths.
The former Juventus man started in a free role in the hole behind two strikes, Viktor Gyokeres and Alexander Isak, against Azerbaijan on Tuesday, with a lot of the home side’s attacks coming through him.
Dejan Kulusevski scores twice and gets an assist
Kulusevski opened the scoring in the 10th minute in Stockholm with a lovely finish across the goal, opening his body to slot the ball into the far post after some good work down the right by Gyokeres.
Kulusevski then turned provider for Gyokeres on 26 minutes, with the Tottenham man racing through on the right and providing a cross to the Sporting Lisbon striker, who controlled it and found the back of the net.
The 24-year-old attacking midfielder got his second goal of the game in 57 minutes, showing some quick feet in the box and lashing the ball in from close range, with the shot having too much power for Azerbaijani goalkeeper Rza Jafarov.
You can watch the full highlights of the match on UEFA’s website.
Sweden’s golden generation?
Sweden would eventually put six past the hapless Azerbaijanis without response, with Gyokeres netting four of those goals.
That means that they secured top place finish in League C, Group 1, and have thus won promotion to League B in the next edition of the Nations League.
More importantly, it is clear that Tomasson is now building a formidable team and following their failure to qualify for the last Euros, Kulusevski and co seem like they could soon be poised to dine at the top table in European and world football.
Many talented young players are coming through the ranks in Sweden at the moment, including Tottenham’s Lucas Bergvall, who came off the bench on 66 minutes in Tuesday’s win.