(Football news) Jesper Karlsson and Anthony Elanga scored as Sweden hammered Azerbaijan 5-0 in their Group F qualifier on Monday. After a terrible performance against Belgium where Romelu Lukaku scored a hat trick, the Swedes this time came out all guns blazing and Alexander Isak had a goal ruled out for offside but Emil Forsberg soon scored in the 38th minute. The Leipzig man was deployed on the left wing as he went on a driving run through the Azerbaijan defence before chipping a shot past the goalkeeper.
Sweden scored one more goal to double their advantage in the 65th minute as Bahlul Mustafazada scored an own goal and just 14 minutes later Viktor Gyokeres made it 3-0 with an easy tap-in. Substitutes Karlsson scored a perfect free kick in the 88th minute and then Elanga added a final goal with a superb solo run. This means that Sweden moved to third spot in the group on three points. Zlatan Ibrahimovic missed the match because of injury, but Sweden coach Janne Andersson assumes that the problem isn’t too serious.
“It’s really frustrating for him and really frustrating for us. Unfortunately, that’s where we are,” Andersson said before the game of Ibrahimovic, who made his first national team appearance in the loss to Belgium.
Poland got their first win under Fernando Santos as striker Karol Swiderski’s goal secured a 1-0 win over Albania to earn their first Group E points. Poland suffered a surprising 3-1 defeat by Czech Republic in their first game but they sealed a narrow win over Albania in the 41st minute through Swiderski who curled a low shot into the net after Jakub Kaminski hit the post from a free kick. Robert Lewandowski wasn’t very influential in the match as he was well marked by the Albanian defence. In the 63rd minute he broke free and fired a shot from close range but his shot was cleared off the line.
The Polish striker had another opportunity in the 84th but this time his shot flew narrowly over the bar. Albania winger Myrto Uzuni had the best chance of the match for Albania, two minutes from time he fired a shot just wide of the left post. In the other Group E match, Czech Republic after their historic win over Poland could only manage to draw 0-0 away to Moldova but they still remained top of the standings by a point from Poland.
“In our minds there is only qualifying, so this victory today was our task to complete and luckily we did it because we took a step forward,” Swiderski told Polish broadcaster TVP Sport.
“In the first half we played some nice football (and) in the second half there were also nice moments. It’s a pity that towards the end it got nervous, but fortunately we won.”
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