Graham Potter's Sweden Thrashes Tunisia 5-1 in World Cup Opener
Graham Potter walked out to Sweden training in Texas last week wearing a Stetson. A bit of theatre, a nod to the World Cup’s host state, and an easy punchline for those who felt he was already in football’s last-chance saloon.
In Monterrey, the jokes stopped.
At Estadio Monterrey, Sweden ripped Tunisia apart 5-1 in Group F, a statement win from a side many expected to simply make up the numbers and from a coach most had already filed under “damaged goods.”
This is a man sacked by Chelsea, then dismissed by West Ham in September after just six league wins from 23 games. A manager whose reputation had frayed so badly in England that the idea of him steering a national team to a World Cup looked remote.
Yet here he was in Mexico, fronting a ruthless Sweden who scored more goals in 90 minutes than they managed in their entire qualifying group stage.
“We were optimistic because we felt confident in the work,” Potter said afterwards. “But until the game is played you don't know for sure. That's the beauty of sport.”
On this evidence, the beauty of sport is also its capacity for reinvention.
From rock bottom to lift-off
Sweden should not really be here, not by the traditional route. Under Jon Dahl Tomasson, their qualifying campaign collapsed. Automatic qualification slipped away, then hope followed. They finished bottom of a group containing Switzerland, Kosovo and Slovenia, without a single win in six games.
Tomasson went. Potter arrived in October. The damage was already done.
Sweden’s escape hatch came via their Uefa Nations League ranking, a modest 34th, which opened the play-off path. They grabbed it, beating Ukraine and Poland to claw their way to this World Cup.
That journey framed this opener. This was not a polished giant rolling into town; it was a bruised football nation and a coach rebuilding their credibility together.
The release was obvious. Sweden didn’t just beat Tunisia, ranked 56th in the world. They dismantled them. They played with a sharpness and conviction that had been missing for years.
Potter’s side scored five. In qualifying, under Tomasson and then briefly under Potter, they scored four across the whole group stage.
Same federation, same flag, same anthem. A completely different team.
Potter, back where he became “Swedish”
To understand why this job fits him, you go back a decade. Back to the man who arrived in a remote corner of Scandinavia and quietly built a miracle.
In Sweden, Potter is not the Chelsea casualty or the West Ham misfire. He is the coach who took Ostersunds FK from the fourth tier to the Allsvenskan, who won the domestic cup, who led a tiny club into Europe. Seven years of work that rewired his football identity.
“I feel very Swedish when I'm working,” he said before the tournament. “I even look a bit Swedish. Two of my children were born in Sweden. I had seven unforgettable years at Ostersunds.”
He talked about starting in the fourth tier, climbing through the system, absorbing the culture. About how those experiences shaped him as a coach. About now working for the Swedish FA as national team head coach and how that deepened the sense of belonging.
His Instagram shows a man who has thrown himself back into that life: family trips through forests and along lakes, Nordic novels, cultural events. But the images only tell half the story. The other half was on the pitch in Monterrey – a team drilled, prepared and fearless.
He looks lighter in this role. The bristling, defensive edge that crept in during his Premier League spell has softened. The pressure is still there, but it suits him differently here. This is his football home.
A £125m spearhead and a new swagger
The most obvious weapon at his disposal is back to full fitness. Alexander Isak, Liverpool’s £125m striker, gives Sweden a world-class focal point again. Against Tunisia, he looked sharp, mobile, hungry.
Alongside him, Arsenal’s Viktor Gyokeres brought power and direct running. The partnership clicked immediately. They assisted each other’s goals, a neat symmetry that will have thrilled Potter.
This is not a budget front line. It is an attack built to frighten elite defences, never mind Tunisia’s. On the evidence of Monterrey, it can.
For a country returning to the World Cup stage after missing Qatar 2022, that matters. Sweden have not come back to simply enjoy the scenery. If Isak and Gyokeres stay fit and in rhythm, they give this side a punch that can unsettle anyone.
The rest of the squad is a blend of promise and inexperience. Only Victor Lindelof has played World Cup minutes before; Kristoffer Nordfelt was on the bench in Russia in 2018 but never used. The lack of tournament know-how is obvious.
Potter’s job is to fuse that raw talent into something hardened enough to survive the tournament’s mood swings. On night one, at least, they looked ahead of schedule.
From Nations League lifeline to knockout ambition
This World Cup format offers a wider safety net, and Sweden have already bounced onto it. A 5-1 opening win does more than put three points on the board; it sends a message to the group and gives Sweden a cushion in the race for the last 32.
They will know Tunisia are not the bar by which they will be judged. Stronger, sharper sides lie ahead, starting with Netherlands on Saturday. That is the fixture that will reveal how far this reborn Sweden can stretch.
“We just focus on what we can do, we focus on our performances,” Potter said. Outside noise, predictions, forecasts – all pushed to one side. “We will meet another top team at the weekend who are one of the favourites for the competition.”
He is right to keep the brakes on the hype. But he will also know what this result does inside his own dressing room. It validates the work, the ideas, the selection calls. It tells a young squad that they belong here.
For Sweden, history offers its own quiet encouragement. Their best World Cup finishes are two third places: 1958, on home soil under another Englishman, George Raynor, and 1994, in the United States. Different eras, different generations, but a shared memory of punching above their weight when the tournament hits American time zones.
Now they are back in North America, with another English coach on the touchline and a team that has already defied its recent past just to be here.
No one sensible is talking about another semi-final yet. But a side that stumbled through qualifying, sneaking in via a Nations League ranking, has just announced itself with five goals and a performance brimming with intent.
The man in the cowboy hat has his team riding high again. The real question now is whether this is just a sharp opening act – or the start of a World Cup run that finally restores Graham Potter’s name to where he always believed it belonged.
