Sweden achieved this Saturday a comfortable victory at home against Kosovo (3-0), and remains in the fight with Spain to finish leader of group B and thus obtain direct qualification for the World Cup in Qatar, a date from which Denmark and England are one step away.
Jan Andersson’s Sweden took the lead with a penalty goal from Leipzig’s offensive midfielder Emil Forsberg (29). The Real Sociedad forward Alexander Isak signed the second (62) and Robin Quaison finished sentencing in the 79th minute against a Kosovo already without options that is penultimate in the group with 4 points.
It does have some chance of being in Qatar-2022 Greece, which won in Georgia (2-0), with two goals on the horn: Tasos Bakasetas from the penalty spot (90) and another in 90 + 5 from Dimitris Pelkas .
The ‘Hellenes’ are third with 9 points, while Georgia closes the table with 1 point.
Spain is exempt from playing this week in the World Cup qualifying phase by playing the final phase of the Nations League in Italy.
In Chisinau, Denmark beat Moldova 4-0 and added a full 21 points, 26 goals for and zero against. The reigning European semifinalist could get a pass next Tuesday if they beat Austria or if Scotland, who are 7 points after beating Israel 3-2, do not win in the Faroe Islands.
It is also close to achieving the goal England, who beat 5-0 in their visit to Andorra, with goals from Ben Chilwell (19), Saka (40), Tammy Abraham (59), Ward-Proseen (79) and Jack Grealish ( 86), and adds 19 points, by Albania’s 15, which beat Hungary 1-0, and Poland’s 14, which also made a hand to San Marino, although Robert Lewandowski was left without scoring.
In group D, Ukraine added a valuable victory (2-1 in Finland) in the close fight it has with Bosnia and the Finnish team for second place in a key led by France, the reigning world champions.
For their part, Serbia and Switzerland put pressure on Portugal and Italy in their respective groups, after beating Luxembourg (1-0) and Northern Ireland (2-0), respectively.
The Balkans are even leaders of group A, with a point of advantage over Portugal, which has a game less.
The ‘Nati’ is placed three points behind Italy in group C, but has a game less than the current continental champion.
In the first round of qualifying matches for the Qatar-2022 World Cup, played on Friday, Germany and the Netherlands took a big step to obtain their ticket, after beating Romania (2-1) and Latvia (1-0), respectively, like Belgium, which did not play, but benefited from the draw between Turkey and Norway, its two main rivals in group G.
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