Hugo Lloris’ inexplicable error in the final moments of France’s Group A qualifier in Stockholm did not only hand Ola Toivonen a last-minute winner to fire Sweden to the top of their group but it also served as a confirmation that the Swedish football team’s transition is coming further into fruition; a year on from Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s international retirement.

The win has put Janne Andersson’s side on course for automatic Russia 2018 qualification (albeit via a slightly superior goal difference over 2^nd placed France) and the electric atmonsphere at the Friends Arena in the home fixture against France reflected the Swedes buoyant mood.

Sweden have significantly underachieved in recent times during Zlatan’s final years; having been eliminated from the group stages of Euro 2016 and bearing the shame of missing out on qualification for the Brazil 2014 World Cup. Morale has been low and the general feeling amongst the Swedish press and fans is that they should be building for the future.

After the Stockholm hysteria post-beating France, Ibrahimovic (who is currently without a domestic club) posted a somewhat cryptic video onto Instagram that fuelled widespread speculation in his home country over the possibility of an international comeback. However, in an online poll for newspaper “Aftonbladet”, 65 per cent of voted responses were in fact not in favour of a return to the national side for their all-time leading goalscorer.

Zlatan was the star of the national side and many critics felt that on too many occasions Sweden collapsed in important qualification or tournaments games under his captaincy. The result of Aftonbladet’s poll confirm that Swedish fans believe now is the time to be looking to the forwards; to unearth the future stars of the national side.

Emil Forsberg of RB Leipzig is one such player who has enjoyed a fruitful campaign. The former Malmo midfielder was instrumental to Leipzig’s success last season; notching 8 league goals in 2016/17 and topping the Bundesliga assist table with 20 to his name.

23-year old centre-back Victor Lindelof’s excellent form for Benfica has been attracting widespread transfer attention throughout Europe for the past year and only last week completed a £31m move to Man Utd. Jose Mourinho has stated on Lindelof “Victor has a great future ahead of him here at Old Trafford”.

Manager Janne Andersson was appointed as manager of the national side in the wake of their Euro 2016 exit and has been since praised for creating an environment where even the more seasoned and less high-profile players thrive in response to the team’s positive synergy.

Ola Toivonen (30) is an excellent case in point as he has been largely out of favour at Toulouse this season but continues to provide a potent outlet for Andersson’s side and displayed this with the timely accurate strike to capitalise on Lloris’ error at the Friends Arena.