Alexander

Arsenal striker Viktor Gyokeres and Liverpool forward Alexander Isak have been named in Sweden’s World Cup squad.

However, the summer’s tournament in Canada, Mexico and the United States has come too soon for Tottenham forward Dejan Kulusevski, who misses out having not played this season because of a knee injury.

Sweden coach Graham Potter said it was difficult to leave out the 26-year-old.

“A very, very difficult decision in terms of where he [Kulusevski] has been and what he’s done over the last year, where he’s at in terms of his rehab with four and a half weeks to go to that first game,” Potter told a news conference.

Isak, 26, has also had an injury-hit campaign and has only started eight league matches for Liverpool since his £125m British record transfer from Newcastle last summer.

“We obviously hope he finishes the season in Liverpool with some game time,” added Potter. “Our challenge is to get Alex in the best moment of the season and for him to hit top form, because if he does, he’s a world-class player.”

Sweden endured a miserable qualifying campaign, finishing bottom of their group with two points, but their performance in the Nations League gave them a second chance and wins over Ukraine and Poland in the play-offs took them to the finals.

“It’s incredibly exciting – a huge honour for me,” said Potter, who became Sweden manager in October. “The positive response from our supporters has been fantastic, and now we’re looking forward to creating more memories together during the World Cup.”

Gyokeres and Isak are two of 11 British-based players in the squad, which also includes goalkeepers Viktor Johansson (Stoke) and Jacob Widell Zetterstrom (Derby) and defenders Hjalmar Ekdal (Burnley), Gabriel Gudmundsson (Leeds) and Victor Lindelof (Aston Villa).

Midfielders Yasin Ayari and Lucas Bergvall, who play for Brighton and Tottenham respectively have also been named, as have Newcastle winger Anthony Elanga and Celtic forward Benjamin Nygren.

Sweden are in Group F and play Tunisia in Monterrey, Mexico on 14 June (03:00 BST, 15 June) before two games in the United States – against the Netherlands in Houston on 20 June and Japan in Dallas five days later (00:00 BST, 26 June).

Less than a year on from the day Liverpool won the Premier League title, Arne Slot’s side find themselves in a position where their season rests on qualifying for the Champions League.

For Slot, perhaps his future does too. There will be no silverware and the Dutchman has already said failing to have Champions League football next season would mean this would “definitely not be an acceptable season”.

This was Liverpool’s 17th defeat of the campaign but it came after arguably one of their better performances. Until Ousmane Dembele’s 72nd-minute strike for Paris St-Germain, Liverpool battled admirably against the champions of Europe.

“It was an intense match between two teams who played really good football,” said PSG head coach Luis Enrique.

For Liverpool, there is no shame in getting knocked out by this PSG side. Luis Enrique’s side are a joy to watch and play with confidence when in possession.

But the worry for Liverpool is they have gone backwards.

When these two sides met in the Champions League last 16 last season, PSG were the better side across the two legs but they needed a penalty shootout to knock Liverpool out.

This time around, they outclassed Slot’s side in Paris and, while there were spells on Tuesday night when Liverpool threatened, the final scoreline of 4-0 across two legs was fair.

“Of course we are very disappointed because I think there were parts of the second half where you could feel ‘if we could just score now, this could become a very special night’,” said Slot.

“But the future looks very bright for this team, for this club. We have showed we can compete with the champions of Europe in our stadium. To be the dominant team, not many teams can be dominant against PSG and create as many chances as we did,” he added.

At Anfield, Liverpool’s xG was 1.94 compared with the 0.18 at the Parc des Princes last week.

So there were positives to take, but there is still plenty to be done before they can be considered serious contenders on the European stage again.

After the match, Mohamed Salah waved goodbye to the Anfield crowd after playing his last game for Liverpool in the Champions League.

Now the question is whether Slot and Liverpool will be back in the Champions League next season.