Ibrahimovic Seals the Victory for Sweden

The Paris Saint-Germain star scored his ninth goal in his last nine European qualifiers to give Sweden a 2-1 win in the first leg on Saturday.

The game exploded into life on the stroke of halftime when winger Forsberg swept Mikael Lustig’s pass beyond Denmark keeper Kasper Schmeichel.

Ibrahimovic made no mistake from the penalty spot, though, after Thomas Kahlenberg tripped Forsberg inside the area five minutes after the break.

Seleznyov could have added a third goal 15 minutes later when he scuffed his shot when well-placed but Ukraine will still be in a strong position in Tuesday’s second leg. We played a high-pressure game, my players had to run a lot, and if you throw in the early substitution, I had a lot of exhausted players in the second half. Both teams wore black armbands and observed a minute of silence before the match.

Ibrahimovic, who scored eight goals in qualifying, downplayed the significance of the Danish goal.

Boosted by Joergensen’s goal, Denmark pushed forward in the final minutes but couldn’t find the equalizer.

“It’s always disappointing to concede a goal”, said Sweden manager Erik Hamren.

Martin O’Neill’s Republic of Ireland will be bidding to carry on from where they left off in their 1-1 first leg draw away to Bosnia in Dublin on Monday as Hungary edged closer to their first global tournament in 30 years when they defeated Norway 1-0 on Friday.

Andriy Yamolenko opened the scoring with a well-hit low shot into the bottom left corner in the 22nd minute, before setting up Yevhen Selznyov for the scond in the 54thg minute.

“We played well and the result we’ve achieved is pretty pleasing but it’s only half-time in the tie”, Ukraine’s manager Mikhail Fomenko said after the match.

Read a guide to all of the play-off games here.