Poland battled to contain a Sweden side
bristling with youthful attacking vigour, but in the end they capitalised on
the visitors’ mistakes thanks to the experience of Lewandowski and his
teammates.
After surviving a shaky opening, Sweden
quickly grew into the game and Emil Forsberg should have given them the lead,
but Wojciech Szczesny pulled off the first of a string of fine saves to turn
the ball behind for a corner in the 19th minute.
The home side also struggled with Dejan
Kulusevski, the winger twice going close before the game turned on a clumsy
mistake by Jesper Karlström. The Sweden midfielder mistimed a challenge in the
box early in the second half and ended up bundling the Poland substitute
Grzegorz Krychowiak to the ground, with referee Daniele Orsato immediately
pointing to the spot.
Up stepped Poland captain Lewandowski and
he sent Robin Olsen the wrong way before confidently striking his low spot-kick
into the net for his 75th international goal.
Sweden threw caution to the wind and poured
forward, with Szczesny getting down smartly to deny Forsberg again, before
Victor Lindelöf sent the resulting corner fractionally wide with a glancing
header.
Just as Sweden looked to be on the verge of
scoring, a mix-up between Kristoffer Olsson and Marcus Danielson allowed
Zielinski to score as he curled the ball into the net at the near post in the
73rd minute.
The Swedes brought their record goalscorer
Zlatan Ibrahimovic off the bench for the final 10 minutes but the Polish
defence held firm in front of a capacity crowd to book their spot in the World
Cup finals.