After two appearances off the bench and a cracking goal against the Netherlands in the second of those, Anthony Elanga was rewarded with a start against Japan in the final group match.
With a 5-1 win and a 5-1 defeat, Sweden were on three points and a zero goal difference. This meant a point or better would guarantee progress to the last 32 and also a faint hope of topping the group if they could win and the Netherlands suffer a shock loss to Tunisia.
Whereas Japan with four points still had realistic ambitions of topping the group with a convincing win over Sweden.
A poor first half with few clear chances, no doubt a large part of that due to the fact that both teams knew that a win wasn’t needed to guarantee progress in the tournament.
That all changed though when in the 56th minute a great team move saw Japan take the lead, Daizen Maeda with the finish.
Sweden suddenly needing a goal and it was Anthony Elanga who produced it out of nowhere.
The ball played out to the Newcastle United winger on the right and he then cut inside and when faced with a packed defence, Elanga brilliantly curled the ball around the keeper and into the far bottom corner from over 20 yards out. A superb finish (watch it below).
The goals brought the game to life and we now had a decent match to watch, then the second half advertising break came along and killed it.
Little further goalmouth action but late on Anthony Elanga forced a very good save from goalkeeper Suzuki in stoppage time.
The final whistle brought the bizarre sight of Elanga falling to the floor and beating the ground in frustration, the goalscorer not realising or forgetting, that a point had been enough to guarantee Sweden were now in the knockout stages!
BBC Sport asks visitors to rate all players out of 10 in matches and Anthony Elanga was rated top player for Sweden by them in this Japan match:
7.04 Anthony Elanga
6.85 Zetterstrom
6.37 Gudmundsson
(Alexander Isak rated the 11th best Swedish player with a rating of 5.33)
Look at THAT curl
Anthony Elanga put Sweden back on terms in a crucial final group stage match against Japan and what a way to do it 😲 pic.twitter.com/ym1uKxpA7q
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) June 26, 2026
The 2026 World Cup group games schedule for Newcastle United players:
Saturday 13 June
Morocco 1 Brazil 1 (Bruno Guimaraes assist for Vinicius Jnr equaliser)
Sunday 14 June
Curacao 1 Germany 7 (Malick Thiaw and Nick Woltemade unused subs)
Monday 15 June
Tunisia 1 Sweden 5 (Anthony Elanga introduced in the 91st minute when Sweden led 4-1)
Wednesday 17 June
Portugal 1 DR Congo 1 (Yoane Wissa with a brilliant headed goal to equalise just before the break)
Croatia 2 England 4 (Dan Burn an unused sub as England entertain!)
Saturday 20 June
Haiti 3 Brazil 0 (Bruno Guimaraes stars in comfortable win)
Ivory Coast 1 Germany 2 (Malick Thiaw and Nick Woltemade were unused subs)
Netherlands 5 Sweden 1 (Anthony Elanga brought on at 4-0 down and scored a cracking goal)
Tuesday 23 June
Ghana 0 England 0 (Dan Burn an unused sub in this bore draw for England)
Wednesday 24 June
Colombia 1 DR Congo 0 (Yoane Wissa played the full match as Colombia won with a 76th minute goal)
Scotland 0 Brazil 3 (Bruno Guimaraes with two classy assists to top off an excellent display)
Friday 26 June
Japan 1 Sweden 1 (Anthony Elanga starting the game and a brilliant long range curling finish that levelled the match and guaranteed Sweden progress to the last 32)
Saturday 27 June
Panama v England (Dan Burn) World Cup group match 10pm ITV
Sunday 28 June
Uzbekistan v DR Congo (Yoane Wissa) World Cup group match 12.30am BBC