World Cup qualifiers

A WORLD CUP without Zlatan Ibrahimovic isn’t worth watching – according to Sweden’s greatest ever goalscorer and showman.But even the great Zlatan must be sorely tempted to pull up his armchair and tune in to see what chaos Robert Lewandowski can cause in Qatar this November.
Robert Lewandowski fired Poland to the World Cup in a 2-0 win over SwedenCredit: Getty
The Bayern Munich star’s penalty set Poland on their way to victoryCredit: Getty
Despite his most memorable quote, the one thing Sweden’s iconic striker Ibrahimovic was never able to brag about was scoring at a World Cup finals.
AC Milan’s Zlatan scored 19 goals in World Cup qualifiers but even he blanked on the biggest stage of all when he failed to score in the 2002 and 2006 World Cup finals.
Don’t bet on Lewandowski suffering the same fate in Qatar this time out!
The Bayern Munich goal-machine proved to be his nation’s talisman again as he calmly slotted home his 75th international goal from the penalty spot, four minutes after the break in his 129th appearance for Poland.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, 40, barely made an impact as an 80th-minute subCredit: Getty
Lewandowski is now set to run riot at Qatar 2022Credit: Getty
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Swedish hearts sank when clumsy Jesper Karlstrom lived up to his ‘unlucky 13’ shirt number and sent former West Brom midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak crashing to the turf inside the box.
It was a rash move by the Swede, who plays his club football for Lech Poznan – and he will never go short of a Tyskie beer in Poland for the rest of his days.
And it spelled the start of the end of Sweden’s World Cup dream as the reigning, twice crowned FIFA Men’s Player of the Year stepped up to face Aston Villa’s Robin Olsen.
A hop, a skip, and a jump later and Lewangoalski had bagged his 51st goal of the season to leave the Poles with one foot in the finals.
Napoli’s Piotr Zielinski was also on the score sheet for the hostsCredit: Getty
It was Poland’s first competitive win against Sweden since 1974Credit: Getty
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And the sorry Swedes hit the self-destruct button after 72 minutes when a defensive cock-up opened the door for Napoli’s Piotr Zielinski to race through unchallenged and beat Olsen from 12 yards.
Lewandowski almost added a couple more before the end as Sweden boss Jan Andersson played his joker and sent on 40-year-old Zlatan.
But even Mr Modest couldn’t pull off the miracle the Swedes required as Villa’s Matty Cash and Co finally got the better of the Swedes in a competitive match for the first time since 1974.
Harry Kane might just have some decent competition for the Golden Boot in Qatar this winter! More

PORTUGAL’S World Cup play-off final clash against North Macedonia has been AXED by a French TV channel… and replaced by Patrick Swayze’s classic film Ghost.Cristiano Ronaldo and Co will book their place in Qatar if they can beat their minnow opponents in Porto on Tuesday night.
Portugal face North Macedonia for a place in the World Cup tonightCredit: Getty
The French channel are showing Swayze classic Ghost insteadCredit: Alamy
But broadcaster W9 have made the decision to drop the match to their streaming platform and put Ghost on instead following Italy’s shock defeat to North Macedonia.
Portugal and European champions Italy looked set to meet in a mouth-watering play-off final.
However, North Macedonia stunned the Euro 2020 winners with an injury-time goal in Palermo as Italy failed to qualify for a second successive World Cup.
The shocking result has subsequently led to Portugal’s crunch game being removed from the French TV station.
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And the channel later confirmed in a statement that it was due to “sports news”.
Meanwhile, Ronaldo has been in the media this week stressing the significance of their match against North Macedonia on Tuesday evening.
Speaking ahead of the game, the Manchester United star said: “For us, this game is a matter of life and death.
“There is a responsibility to win this game. For us, also a game of our lives.
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“They have surprised [opponents] in many games but I believe they will not surprise us.
“There is no World Cup without Portugal. There are no individualities here.”
Portugal have qualified for each of the last five World Cups – a run which stretches back to 1998 when they failed to reach the finals for a third successive tournament. More

LEONARDO BONUCCI has apologised after Italy left their dressing room in a horrible state.Videos circulated on social media of the mess that the Azzurri left behind following their shocking 1-0 defeat to North Macedonia.
Italy’s dressing room was left in a horrible stateCredit: Twitter
The Azzurri departed the scene leaving behind a vile messCredit: Twitter
Roberto Mancini’s side had just been dumped out of World Cup qualificationCredit: Twitter
Roberto Mancini’s side were slammed in all quarters for their meek World Cup play-off semi-final exit at the hands of their unfancied opponents.
They received even more criticism after people saw the state of their dressing room left behind at Stadio Renzo Barbera in Palermo.
Bottles, food waste and even cigarette butts could be seen scattered around after the Italian team’s departure.
Ahead of their friendly against Turkey, Bonucci addressed the mess in his pre-match press conference.
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He said: “It was a big mistake, next time, we’ll pay more attention.
“We were very disappointed and we didn’t think that these details make the difference sometimes.
“We’ll pay more attention in the next matches, we apologise.”
The Azzurri’s chief of communications Paolo Corbi added: “It’s an aspect that we underestimated and we’ve already apologised to Palermo Calcio.
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“We had to catch the flight for Coverciano and there was a huge disappointment even if, we must say, the state of the dressing room when we left was not exactly the one shown in the video. It was not all down to us.”
Bitter over his side’s failure to qualify for Qatar 2022, Bonucci slammed the play-off process.
He said: “It ended up being all decided in just one game, that’s an absurd rule.
“We come here playing games at home and away and then it ends like this.
“There are teams selected in other confederations that have lost four or five games.
“And we were eliminated by a goal in the 92nd minute in our only defeat. This new formula is a real madness.”
Bonucci, 34, may have been referencing Uruguay and Ecuador – who have both qualified despite losing six qualifiers.
Leonardo Bonucci apologised for the messCredit: Getty More