Leeds United star plays important role as national team end concerning 18-game run

Leeds United defender Gabriel Gudmundsson played just under an hour as Sweden beat Romania 1-0 on Monday to end a worrying 18-game run.

Sweden hadn’t kept a clean sheet since a 2-0 friendly win over Hungary in June 2025. Since then, Gudmundsson’s side played 18 games across the World Cup qualifiers, finals and Nations League without shutting an opposition side out.

The Leeds defender started his third game of the international break on Monday as Sweden travelled to Romania. They needed a win to guarantee top-spot in their Nations League group until November and got it through a 13th-minute Viktor Gyokeres goal.

That proved to be the only goal of the game in Bucharest with Sweden putting in a strong defensive performance to keep Romania at bay. Gudmundsson played 54 minutes before being replaced by fellow left-back Daniel Svensson.

Gudmundsson’s removal was part of a double change by head coach Graham Potter, with no obvious sign of any injury issues. The left-back has previously played 90 minutes in each of the last two games, most recently away to Bosnia and Herzegovina on Friday night.

The left-back was also happy to speak with Swedish media after the game, addressing the clean sheet record which has now ended. He told the Swedish Herald: “We had to fight a lot today and we knew it wouldn’t be an easy match. You’ve been nagging about that clean sheet, so now we got it. It’s great not to get asked about it.”

The victory leaves Sweden top of their Nations League group with an impressive 10 points from four games played. Gudmundsson’s side are two points clear of Leeds teammate Tarik Muharemovic’s Bosnia, who also won 1-0 on Monday against Poland.

Gudmundsson and Muharemovic will now both return to West Yorkshire with their international commitments complete. The pair will have four full days to rest and recover before Leeds return to action at Premier League champions Arsenal.