Carl Starfelt’s World Cup dream remains alive after Sweden secured a place in the Play-Off Final against Poland thanks to a 1-0 home win over the Czech Republic.
The Celtic defender was an unused substitute but watched with joy as fellow sub Robin Quaison scored the 110th minute winner with the tie looking set for a penalty shoot-out.
Starfelt and his team-mates will move on to Poland for Tuesday’s Play-Off Final with just one more tie standing between them and a place in the Qatar Finals with Josip Juranovic, Kyogo Furuhashi and Daizen Maeda already eyeing up a place with their nations booked in for the Finals.
Portugal will play North Macedonia at the same time for a finals place with Italy coming to terms with missing out on a second successive finals place after they lost 1-0 at home to North Macedonia.
The final European spot at the finals won’t be known till June at the earliest with Wales waiting to face the winners of the Scotland v Ukraine match. Callum McGregor and Greg Taylor played in Scotland’s 1-1 draw against Poland but what happens next in their World Cup quest is outwith the control of football.
