Spain beats Sweden to qualify for Qatar 2022 World Cup

The number of teams that have qualified for the FIFA World Cup continues to swell over the weekend as more countries confirmed their participation in the FIFA 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

With two matchdays left to play, Spain were on the brink of losing out on automatic qualification to Sweden, but after Georgia’s 2-0 victory against the Swedes and their own 1-0 win over Greece on Thursday, the La Roja took full control over their qualification destiny.

Luis Enrique’s side knew that a draw would secure their qualification ahead of the Swedish national team, and they did one better to get a victory on Sunday.

However, the win did not come any easy, a goalless first half and after 84 minutes into the game with 5 minutes left to play, it looked as though the Spaniards would have to settle for a draw until Dani Olmo’s shot was tipped onto the post by Sweden’s goalkeeper.

Fortunately, Juventus’s forward Alvaro Morata was around to tap in the rebound to secure Spain’s victory and their 12th consecutive FIFA World Cup qualification.

Meanwhile, Portugal has to wait for the playoffs after losing 2-1 to Serbia on Sunday. Fulham’s Aleksander Mitrovic scored a late winner to break the Portuguese hearts.

Renato Sanchez’s 2nd-minute strike had been canceled by Dusan Tadic’s equalizer, before Mitrovic’s late stunner.

The Netherlands will wait for their last game against Norway on Tuesday before they can secure qualification automatically.

In other results on Sunday, Greece was held to a 1-1 draw by Kosovo, Germany beat Armenia 4-1 while North Macedonia beat Iceland 4-1.

Croatia also snatched an automatic qualification ticket from Russia with a 1-0 victory over the 2018 World Cup host on Sunday.

Ireland defeated Luxembourg 3-0 but failed to secure a playoffs spot.

Written by: Daniel Ademiju Idowu