Alexander Isak justifies Premier League interest with exciting showing against Slovakia

Right, let's not pretend that Sweden's 1-0 win over Slovakia was actually any fun to watch. It wasn't. At all.

There was very little excitement on show - even the goal came from a penalty - but the only man who looked like he wanted to contribute to the highlight reel was Alexander Isak, who flashed some glimpses of his outrageous quality to leave Slovakia bamboozled at times.

With Zlatan Ibrahimovic not part of the squad, Sweden have pinned all their hopes on Isak this summer, and it's not hard to see why. The 21-year-old is a whole lot of fun.

Isak did his best to bring the boring first half to life with some impressive movement and energy, but his runs weren't spotted by most of his teammates and ended up going to waste. He was visibly frustrated by that and clearly said something at the break, after which he started to take control of the game.

Just seconds into the second half, he produced the game's first bit of excitement with a solid strike, but Isak was clearly just warming up for his main event - a dazzling half-pitch run which nearly brought us the goal of the tournament.

Picking the ball up in the centre circle, Isak weaved his way past two defenders with some incredible footwork, but he wasn't done there. A glorious stepover sent two more players packing and a cut inside embarrassed one more, but he couldn't match that quality with his strike at the end of it.

His six dribbles during the game was the most we have seen from any player at this tournament so far and the most any Swedish player has managed in a tournament game since 1992.

Isak looked terrifyingly up for this one, flashing all the quality that we saw from him at club level with Real Sociedad. 17 goals in 34 appearances for La Liga's Young Player of the Year built up plenty of hype, and he's living up to it this summer.

It's no surprise that some of the Premier League's elite are sniffing around. According to AS, Isak has attracted interest from Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool, all three of whom have been tipped to pay his £60m release clause.

Scouts will have been watching this game closely, and if they were in any doubt as to whether Isak is worth that kind of money, they'll have made their minds up after this showing.

Isak's stock is rising with each passing game. His list of suitors is only going to grow even longer, and it wouldn't be a surprise to see his name in the headlines all summer.

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