Gyökeres scored in an eighth straight Nations League game as Sweden nearly blew a 3-0 lead

Viktor Gyökeres scored twice from the penalty spot on Saturday, and Sweden beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 3-2 in Solna to win Nations League Group B4 and secure promotion to League A with a game to spare. The two goals stretched the Arsenal striker's run to eight straight Nations League games with a goal, but the scoreline hides how close Graham Potter's team came to throwing away a 3-0 halftime lead.

Sweden were ahead inside five minutes. Anthony Elanga crossed from the right and Daniel Svensson headed in his first international goal, in his 20th appearance for the national team, according to Svenska Dagbladet. Six minutes later Gyökeres was brought down in the box by Stjepan Radeljić and drove the penalty into the bottom corner himself.

Alexander Isak thought he had made it 3-0 midway through the half after work from Elanga and Gyökeres, but the goal was ruled out for offside after a VAR review. The third arrived anyway in first-half stoppage time: Svensson was fouled by Sead Kolašinac, and Gyökeres switched corners and scored his second penalty of the night.

According to talkSPORT, the brace gives Gyökeres 12 goals in his last eight Nations League appearances, a run that dates back to October 2024, and 16 in the competition overall. Only Norway's Erling Haaland, with 23, has scored more Nations League goals. Svenska Dagbladet counted it as his 12th goal in 12 games under Potter, and talkSPORT has him on 27 goals in 42 caps for Sweden.

The second half looked like a different game. Armin Gigović, who played youth football for Sweden before switching to Bosnia, headed in Ermin Mahmić's cross two minutes after the restart. Kolašinac then headed in a Kerim Alajbegović corner at the near post in the 62nd minute to make it 3-2.

The numbers back up what Swedish reporters saw. Bosnia finished with 57.8% of the possession and outshot Sweden 16 to 13, according to EM-fotboll.se's match report. Goalkeeper Viktor Johansson kept the lead alive with a reflex save on Amar Memić's header in the closing minutes, and Kolašinac missed one more header from a corner deep in stoppage time.

Potter's main change on the hour mark was a big one for the home crowd. Dejan Kulusevski came on for his first minutes for Sweden in 725 days, Svenska Dagbladet reported, but his arrival didn't stop Bosnia's pressure.

The result leaves Sweden on 13 points, five clear of Bosnia (8), with Poland on 4 and Romania on 3 after Romania beat Poland 2-1. Tuesday's trip to Wroclaw is now a dead rubber for Sweden. Winning the group puts them in League A for the 2028-29 edition, only the second time they have played at that level after 2020-21, and guarantees a place in the second pot when the Euro 2028 qualifying draw is made on Dec. 6.

That Nations League safety net has already paid off once. Sweden finished last in their World Cup qualifying group without a win, VG noted, but their 2024 League C title earned them a playoff spot in March, and they beat Ukraine 3-1 and Poland 3-2, with Gyökeres scoring late in the final, to reach the World Cup.

For Arsenal, the takeaway is simple: Gyökeres heads back to London with two more goals and a scoring run that no one else in the competition has matched. For Sweden, the bigger lesson is from the second half. A team going into League A can't afford to lose control of a three-goal lead the way they did in Solna.