Poland vs Sweden LIVE: World Cup play-off final result, score and reaction tonight

Relive all the action from Chorzow

England football: Tough games will prepare team for tournaments, Southgate says

Poland’s Robert Lewandowski and Piotr Zielinski fired second-half goals to book a place at the World Cup finals in Qatar with a 2-0 win over Sweden in an electrifying playoff tie on Tuesday.

The Poles battled to contain a Sweden side bristling with youthful attacking vigour, but in the end experience told as Lewandowski and his team mates capitalised on mistakes.

After a shaky opening, the Swedes quickly grew into the game and winger Emil Forsberg should have given them the lead but Wojciech Szczesny pulled off the first of a string of fine saves to turn the ball behind for a corner in the 19th minute.

The home side also struggled as Sweden winger Dejan Kulusevski twice went close before the playoff final turned on a clumsy mistake by Jesper Karlstroem.

The Swedish midfielder mistimed a challenge in the box early in the second half and ended up bundling Poland substitute Grzegorz Krychowiak to the ground, with Italian referee Daniele Orsato immediately pointing to the spot.

Up stepped Poland captain Lewandowski to send Robin Olsen the wrong way as he confidently struck his low spot kick into the net for his 75th international goal.

The Swedes threw caution to the wind and poured forward, with Szczesny getting down smartly to deny Forsberg again and Victor Lindelof sending the resulting corner just wide with a glancing header.

Just as the visitors looked to be on the verge of scoring, a mix-up between Kristoffer Olsson and Marcus Danielson allowed Zielinski to score as he curled the ball into the net at the near post in the 73rd minute.

The Swedes brought their record scorer Zlatan Ibrahimovic off the bench for the final 10 minutes but Szczesny and the Polish defence held firm in front of a capacity crowd to secure their country’s spot at the World Cup. Relive all the action live below:

Poland vs Sweden

• Poland: Szczesny, Biellik, Glik, Bednarek, Cash, Goralski, Moder, Bereszynski, Zielinski, Szymanski, Lewandowski
• Sweden: Olsen, Krafth, Lindelof, Augustinsson, Kulusevski, Karlstrom, Olsson, Forsberg, Isak, Quaison

[29 March 2022 22:15 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

Farewell!

That just about does us for this evening’s live coverage. We now know 12 of the 13 Uefa representatives who will be at the 2022 Fifa World Cup ahead of Friday’s group stage draw, with Poland and Portugal punching their tickets with 2-0 home wins.

We’ll have plenty of reaction to all of tonight’s football over the next couple of days as we build up to proceedings in Doha where the competing nations will find out what awaits them come the first men’s World Cup held in November and December.

But, for now, this is goodbye - thank you for joining us, and do stay safe and well!

[29 March 2022 22:09 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

Pepe, excellent this evening, on earning the chance to appear at a fourth World Cup

“I want to thank all the Portuguese people. It was an exciting night, the atmosphere was fantastic.

“We deserved it. It would have been an injustice not to go to the World Cup.

“Dreaming is within everyone’s reach. We have a lot of quality but we have to work hard and be a humble and warrior team.”

(Getty Images)

[29 March 2022 22:07 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

Fernando Santos on Portugal’s win and qualification for the 2022 Fifa World Cup

“The attitude of the players was fantastic, with great collective spirit. It was a deserved victory.

“The only dream I have is to win a third competition [to go with Euro 2016 and the Nations League in 2019]. I dream of the World Cup.”

[29 March 2022 21:52 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

World Cup draw to be made on Friday 1 April

[29 March 2022 21:49 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

Looking ahead to Friday’s draw

I’m virtually certain that Portugal will be in Pot One for the World Cup group stage draw on Friday, joining Qatar, Belgium, Brazil, France, Argentina, Spain and England.

That means that Denmark, potential seeding beneficiaries of a surprise Portuguese exit, will be in Pot Two.

[29 March 2022 21:43 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

AND PORTUGAL HAVE BOOKED THEIR PLACE, TOO

[29 March 2022 21:43 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

POLAND QUALIFY FOR THE 2022 FIFA WORLD CUP

[29 March 2022 21:42 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

FULL TIME! POLAND 2-0 SWEDEN

POLAND QUALIFY FOR THE 2022 FIFA WORLD CUP IN QATAR

(Getty Images)

[29 March 2022 21:41 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

Poland 2-0 Sweden, 90 + 2 minutes

This is a real blow for Sweden. They should really have qualified from their group, but a loss to Georgia in the penultimate round of fixtures was costly, and for all their attacking resources they’ve mustered only one goal across 210 minutes of play-off football.

Two more minutes of additional time and that’ll be that.

[29 March 2022 21:39 · Harry Latham-Coyle]

Poland 2-0 Sweden, 90 minutes

That would have sealed the deal! Grzegorz Krychowiak somehow pokes the ball forward to Robert Lewandowski as he thuds into the floor, and Lewandowski’s rifled effort deflects away from goal.

Into added time.