'Dear me' - Anthony Elanga's bizarre reaction to World Cup heroics leaves everyone confused
Newcastle United Anthony Elanga was on the scoreseheet once again for Sweden as they drew 1-1 with Japan at the 2026 World Cup.
Anthony Elanga scored a sensational World Cup goal for Sweden in a 1-1 group stage draw against Japan.
The 24-year-old cut in from the right and curled a wonderful left-footed strike into the bottom left corner of the goal to cancel out Daizen Maeda’s opener six minutes earlier.
It was Elanga’s second goal of the tournament after his consolation in the 5-1 defeat against Netherlands last weekend. It was also enough to secure Sweden’s place in the knockout rounds as one of the best third-place teams - though the Newcastle man himself was none the wiser.
Anthony Elanga’s bizarre reaction to World Cup heroics
At full-time, Elanga dropped to the floor in frustration, thinking his wonderful strike was ultimately in vain. Yet, in reality, it was the strike that effectively confirmed his country’s place in the last-32.
In the post-match press conference, Sweden manager Graham Potter was informed about Elanga’s reaction to the draw.
“That explains a few things then!” Potter chuckled. “It couldn’t have been any clearer for him so he’s obviously thinking about something else. Bless him.
“I love him at the moment but dear me.”
In Elanga’s defence, this is the first edition of the tournament in which the best third-place teams qualify out of the group. Though Sweden would have gone into the game knowing a point would be good enough to progress.
Newcastle United still hoping to see the best of Anthony Elanga
It’s been almost a year since Elanga joined Newcastle from Nottingham Forest for £55million. It’s fair to say his first season on Tyneside failed to live up to expectations as he ended the campaign without a single Premier League goal.
His only goals came in a 3-1 Carabao Cup defeat to Manchester City and a brace in a 7-2 defeat in the Champions League at Barcelona.
But Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe has backed the winger to come good for Newcastle.
“Anthony had a really strong year last year for Nottingham Forest, a lot of goals, a lot of assists, a lot of goal contributions,” Howe said last month. “We obviously came up against him a few times and I thought he was always a really strong performer against us, gave us problems in those games.
“He's obviously come to us and I think he's had some really good games for us. Obviously, there have been some games in there where he's found it a little bit more difficult, as every player would.
“I still believe the best is very much yet to come for Ant here. I think he's got some outstanding qualities that we really value and we really want in the team, but there'll be an element of frustration, I'm sure, for him that he hasn't shown his consistent best throughout the season.
“But as I said, players take different times to settle, different times to get into a full understanding of what we ask them to do.
“Again, he's a player that looks like he's benefiting from full-team training at the moment and I'm really confident that next season he'll have a really great year.”