In that defeat to Germany substitute Jimmy Durmaz - a winger who was born to immigrant parents from Turkey, in the Swedish city of Orebro - was the player who gave away the last-gasp free kick that allowed German midfielder Toni Kroos to curl in a stoppage time winner for the struggling world champions - a goal that could have proved fatal to Sweden's hopes. Durmaz was then subjected to racial vilification on social media from his countrymen and dubbed a ''terrorist,'' ''Arab devil" and compared to the Taliban. Toivonen says that the most enduring memory for him of Russia 2018 was the way the rest of the squad rallied round Durmaz and stood behind their teammate, helping him regroup and the squad to find fresh resolution for the Mexico match, which they won 3-0. ''I think the most memory I’ll take is Germany beating us 2-1 and one teammate got a lot of racist abuse after the game and we have a decisive game three or four days later against Mexico. ''We did a terrific game and we won 3-0 and advanced to the final 16. Those four days will be in my memories for a long time. How we as a group came together as one and did an amazing performance against Mexico.

''The whole experience about the World Cup was something I’m going to take with me for a long time. I managed to play one Euro and one World Cup for Sweden and I’m extremely proud of that. '' And what of his goal and the unconsidered Swedes (who had also pulled off a surprise in qualifying by beating Italy) reaching the quarter final? ''The goal, of course, it’s a childhood dream coming true. So it was nice. Unfortunately we lost the game (against Germany. We knew before every game we need to do a good performance and if only nine of us are playing good then we’re not going to make it against England. ''We weren’t good enough and we were a little bit tired as well so then England is to good for us.'' Toivonen only arrived in the country this week and will join his new teammates in a seven-day camp on the Sunshine Coast almost immediately.