Cricket’s snicko rule came to the rescue for Sweden’s Mattias Svanberg as he saw an offside getting overturned during his strike in the latter half of the FIFA World Cup 2026 clash against Tunisia. The Blรฅgult defeated Tunisia 5-1 in a cakewalk Group F clash at the Estadio Monterrey to move to the top of their group.
Yasin Ayari scored a brace with his strikes, bookended in the seventh minute and in the stoppage time of the second half. Alexander Isak and Viktor Gyรถkeres also scored one each and assisted in one, as Mattias Svanberg also scored one in record time to take the team to a dominant win.ย
Snicko saves things for Svanberg
Meanwhile, cricket’s famous snicko technology was used to save Svanberg’s 84th-minute attempt, when an offside flag was raised to cancel his strong strike past Mouhib Chamakh. Ayari sent a set piece as Svanberg rushed past the final Tunisian defender to hit the ball back into the net. As he was offside, the goal was initially overruled.ย
However, the referee conducted a lengthy video check and a snicko was rolled in when Isak tried kissing his foot to the ball. As it turned out, he had a feather from his boot onto the ball before it went to the Wolfsburg midfielder, who then scored one into the goal. The goal was given to Sweden after it was confirmed that the Liverpool striker had a faint boot on it.
Svanberg scores in 18 seconds as Sweden win big
The goal meant Svanberg scored just 18 seconds after coming to the pitch as a substitute. This is the second-fastest time taken by a substitute to score a FIFA World Cup goal since 1966, when Richard Morales had thundered one for Uruguay in the 2002 World Cup in just 16 seconds after coming in on as a substitute.ย
Sweden bagged an easy 5-1 win to go on top of Group F. The Netherlands and Japan had earlier played out a 2-2 stalemate after Daichi Kamada saved the day for the Samurai Blue to salvage a draw. Sweden will now face the Dutch on June 20 before getting across the path of Japan on June 26.
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