Robert Lewandowski on target as Poland reach World Cup after ending 31-year wait to beat Sweden

A jubilant Poland booked their spot at Qatar 2022 thanks to a 2-0 win over Sweden in their World Cup play-off. Second-half goals from Robert Lewandowski and Piotr Zielinski were enough to earn the hosts a historic victory, their first over the Swedes since 1991.

Both sides had chances in what was a nervy and at times frantic opening period, but Poland’s Wojciech Szczesny made a superb save from Emil Forsberg’s low drive, while Robin Olsen kept out Jan Bednarek’s terrific volley at the other end. Ad/> The deadlock was finally broken after the break when substitute Grzegorz Krychowiak, who had only been on the field for a handful of minutes, was fouled in the box by Jesper Karlstrom.

The referee immediately pointed to the spot, with Lewandowski sending the goalkeeper the wrong way with his calm penalty. World Cup Qualification UEFAQuaison strike leads Sweden past Czech Republic into play-off final24/03/2022 AT 19:32 Sweden responded quickly to going behind, but for all their pressing, they could not find a way past Szczesny, who made another huge save from Forsberg when he rushed across his line to block down to his right.

/> And the visitors were made to pay for not making their chances count as they found themselves two goals down with 72-minutes on the clock. Zielinski capitalised on a mistake in the visiting defence, bursting forward one-on-one with Olsen before calmly lifting into the back of the net.

TALKING POINT Why did Sweden leave it so late for Zlatan? With time ticking away, it was a huge surprise that Sweden waited until they were 2-0 down to bring Zlatan Ibrahimovic off the bench — especially as their finishing was so poor. The visitors had plenty of chances in both halves, but failed to hit the target