{"id":409598,"date":"2025-09-09T05:05:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T05:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/409598\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T05:05:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T05:05:13","slug":"alexander-isak-endures-nightmare-return-in-first-match-for-three-months-as-liverpools-new-125m-signing-is-booked-and-sweden-suffer-surprise-defeat-by-kosovo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/409598\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexander Isak endures nightmare return in first match for THREE MONTHS as Liverpool’s new \u00a3125m signing is booked and Sweden suffer surprise defeat by Kosovo"},"content":{"rendered":"

By LIAM MORGAN, ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR<\/a> <\/p>\n

Published: 19:10 EDT, 8 September 2025 | Updated: 19:14 EDT, 8 September 2025 <\/p>\n

Alexander Isak endured a torrid return to competitive action as he was unable to prevent Sweden from falling to a surprise defeat by Kosovo in World Cup qualifying on Monday.<\/p>\n

Isak made his first appearance since May as he came on as a 72nd-minute substitute for Newcastle’s Anthony Elanga<\/a>, but his only real contribution to the game was a booking for clashing with\u00a0Kosovo’s Fidan Aliti as his side were beaten 2-0 in\u00a0Pristina.<\/p>\n

The British record signing, who was left on the bench for Sweden’s 2-2 draw with Slovenia on Friday, had been introduced when his team were already trailing by two goals.<\/p>\n

Isak had gone on strike in the summer to force a move from Newcastle to Liverpool<\/a> before he eventually got his wish on deadline day.<\/p>\n

He had not trained or played since his last appearance for Newcastle on May 25 and Sweden boss\u00a0Jon Dahl Tomasson raised concerns over his fitness ahead of their game against Slovenia.<\/p>\n

Isak insisted after the loss to Kosovo that Liverpool had not limited his gametime, with the star now set to join up with his new team-mates before the Reds face Burnley<\/a> in the Premier League<\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\"Alexander <\/p>\n

Alexander Isak was unable to prevent Sweden from falling to a surprise defeat by Kosovo<\/p>\n

\"Isak <\/p>\n

Isak was introduced in the 72nd minute and was booked for a clash with\u00a0Fidan Aliti<\/p>\n

‘Not that I know of. I’m with the national team now,’ he said. ‘Clubs and national teams have contact but it’s between them in such cases.’<\/p>\n

Tomasson said he had given Isak the ‘maximum’ amount of minutes after previously sounding the alarm over his condition.<\/p>\n

Defeat for Sweden deals an early blow to their hopes of reaching next year’s World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n

They sit third in their four-team group but are already five points behind leaders Switzerland, who have won their opening two matches.<\/p>\n

Only the team who finishes top of the group will qualify automatically for the tournament.<\/p>\n

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\n Alexander Isak endures nightmare return in first match for THREE MONTHS as Liverpool’s new \u00a3125m signing is booked and Sweden suffer surprise defeat by Kosovo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By LIAM MORGAN, ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR Published: 19:10 EDT, 8 September 2025 | Updated: 19:14 EDT, 8 September…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[9261,1099,92,94,179,3047,13492,93,79,812,65979,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-409598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-alexander-isak","9":"tag-anthony-elanga","10":"tag-dailymail","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-liverpool","13":"tag-newcastle-united","14":"tag-slovenia","15":"tag-sport","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-sweden","18":"tag-sweden-football","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115172601993269663","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}