Sweden 3-2 Poland
Poland are out of Euro 2020 after losing a five goal thriller to Group E winner Sweden as Emil Forsberg struck twice to give his side an imposing 2-0 lead.
Robert Lewandowski halved the deficit with a spectacular strike and then he added a second with just five minutes remaining, but any hopes of a Poland revival were ended by Viktor Klaessen who fired home with seconds remaining. Sweden were already through to the knockout phase, while Poland had kept their tournament alive with a 1-1 draw with Spain last time out, but it’s another early exit for Lewandowski and co.
Tonight’s Group E Euro 2020 results also saw Spain run riot against Slovakia, winning 5-0 to take second place and qualify for the Round of 16 while Slovakia look certain to join Poland on their way home.
Highlights of the game
It couldn’t have been a better start for Sweden. There didn’t seem to be much danger for Poland when they conceded a throw-in on the right wing, near the half way line. But Forsberg combined well with Alexander Isak before battling to retain possession on the edge of the box and firing his cross shot into the bottom right corner, giving Wojciech Szczesny no chance. That put Poland under huge pressure from the off, but they came so close to levelling on 17 minutes. Robert Lewandowski fired a shot in from distance and it was deflected behind for a corner. From the resulting cross the Bayern man headed against the crossbar and his follow up effort hit the very same spot!
He couldn’t do that again if he tried and, from his reaction, Lewandowski had no idea how he hadn’t equalised.
On the stroke of half time Everton keeper Robin Olsen made a flying save to tip over a fierce effort from Piotr Zielinski and the Poles were left to rue their first half misses as they went in for the half time cup of tea. Poland needed their shooting boots on to save their campaign and there was little evidence that they had them on the right feet in the opening 45!
They began the second half with intent, but when they did hit the target they found Olsen in inspirational form to deny Zielinski and then Grzegorz Krychowiak, while at the other end of the pitch Szczesny made a good save to keep out Isak. But as Poland pressed they were always vulnerable to the counter attack and, just before the hour, mark they were undone again.
Juventus youngster Dejan Kulusevski broke away and made a brilliant run deep into Poland territory before sliding the ball inside to Forsberg, and he hit the sweetest shot low into the bottom right corner for his second of the game and third of the tournament.
That looked like being that but then, finally, we saw the moment of genius from Lewandowski that we’d been waiting for. Zielinski threaded a superb ball through the striker and he cut inside onto his right foot before firing an unstoppable bullet into the top right corner.
61 minutes on the clock and the game was back on.
Only four minutes later Poland had the ball in the net again when Jakub Swierczok pushed his shot home, but his celebrations were cut short when the offside flag went up and VAR confirmed. The Poles continued to press but the delivery of crosses into the Sweden box was below par, until…the 84th minute when a brilliant ball from Przemyslaw Frankowski, on the left flank, found Lewandowski in acres of space, and he wasn’t going to miss from eight yards out to set up a grandstand finish.
And it came on 94 minutes, but at the wrong end for Poland fans when Viktor Klaessen fired home from close range.
Key statistics
Sweden have now won their last six games against Poland and ten from the last 12, while they recorded a seventh win in an unbeaten run of eight games, while Poland have won just one game in ten, in all competitions.
None of the last 27 meetings between these two teams has ended goalless and Emil Forsberg’s opener, clocked at 81 seconds, is the second fastest goal in European Championship history, beaten only by Dmitry Kirichenko’s effort for Russia against Greece at Euro 2004. The Greeks ended up winning the tournament, in only their second ever appearance at the European Championships. It’s fair to say Poland aren’t going to win Euro 2020!
What’s next?
The group stages come to a close on Wednesday night as Group F concludes when France face Portugal and a resurgent Germany meets Hungary.
Keep a close eye on the Euro 2020 betting odds here at SBOTOP, as the Round of 16 kicks off and the nation of Sweden is now waiting to see who they will face next Tuesday at Hampden Park. Before that, Spain face Croatia next Monday at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen. The Croats were impressive in their group matches, losing only to England and sweeping Scotland aside on Tuesday night.
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