Sweden 3-2 Poland, Andersson men ahead of Spain in the next round
Sweden defeated Poland 3-2 in a spectacular match to take the top spot above Spain and advance to the next round.
Sweden
had already advanced to the knockout stages with a win over
Slovakia
and a draw against
Spain
, and today's game was important only because it determined where they would end up in the group.
On the other hand, the win in this game was the only way to keep alive the hope for
Poland
, because they had gained only one point from the previous two games and only a victory in this match could take them to the next stage.
It took Sweden just 81 seconds to score the opening goal. Janne Andersson's side started the game very strongly, and in the second minute of the match,
Emil Forsbergscored the first goal of the game. Poland have multiple attempts to clear the ball, first when Isak brings it down before Forsberg latches onto it. He takes it around Glik before firing across goal and into the far bottom corner from the left of the box
Poland then prepared several promising attacks, but the goalpost and Olsen's spectacular reactions prevented Poland from scoring the equalizer.
Poland needed to win this game to advance to the next round, so they started the second half well. But their massive attacks failed with Olsen's good reactions.
In the 59th minute, contrary to the course of the game, Sweden and Forsberg scored the second goal. A superb counter-attack from Sweden, but it's more bad defending from Poland. It's an incredible break from Kulusevski as he picks up the ball on the halfway line and he drives forward down the right before picking out Forsberg. Kulusevski squares it to Forsberg on the edge of the six-yard box. He hits it first time, curling his low shot around Juventus shot-stopper Szczesny and into the bottom corner.
Two minutes later,
Lewandowskibrought Poland back into the game. A great pick out from Lewandowski on the left and the Swedish defenders sit back and allow him to cut inside.
Poland came to life after the beautiful goal of the Bayern Munich star and continued their attacks, and finally, in the 84th minute, Lewandowski scored his and Poland's second goal. The cross from Frankowski catches out both central defenders for Sweden and leaves Lewandowski in space in the middle of the box. He has time to turn and coolly slot the ball past Olsen and into the back of the net.
But in the 94th minute, Sweden took advantage of the weakness of the Polish defense and turned their dream of advancing to the next stage to ashes. Kulusevski sets it up again by slotting it through to Claesson, and he just glides past the Polish defenders before firing his shot into the near post and he's surely wrapped up the win for Sweden.
That win means that Sweden go through as the winners of Group E and they'll be facing one of the best third-place teams in the next round in Glasgow on Tuesday.
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