Italy are to face Bosnia and Herzegovina for a place at the FIFA World Cup after beating Northern Ireland 2-0 on Thursday, as Wales and the Republic of Ireland suffered agonizing penalty shoot-out defeats in their qualifying playoff semi-finals.
Sandro Tonali and Moise Kean struck second-half goals in Bergamo to keep four-time World Cup winners Italy on track to end a 12-year absence from the tournament.
Italy missed the past two editions in Russia and Qatar, but Tonali’s powerful drive and an excellent finish from Kean nudged Gennaro Gattuso’s team a step closer to a return to the biggest stage.
Photo: Reuters
“We had to work hard because it was not easy tonight,” Gattuso said. “We knew this game would be tough, all we can do now is try to recharge the batteries.”
Italy are to take on Bosnia and Herzegovina in Zenica on Tuesday next week. A late header from 40-year-old Edin Dzeko canceled out Dan James’ superb opener for Wales and forced extra-time in Cardiff, where Bosnia scraped through 4-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw.
“We’re lost for words,” Wales captain Ethan Ampadu told the BBC. “We prepared as well as we could have and I thought we played well. We can hold our heads up high because we fought for everything, sometimes in life things don’t go your way.”
Viktor Gyokeres scored a hat-trick in Sweden’s 3-1 win over Ukraine.
Arsenal striker Gyokeres netted his first goals of the qualifying campaign to lead Sweden to the brink of the finals, despite a dismal group stage in which they picked up just two points in six matches.
Sweden got another chance as a result of their UEFA Nations League performances and Gyokeres turned in from close range early on against Ukraine, unable to play at home because of the war with Russia and instead having to move the tie to neutral ground in Valencia, Spain.
Gyokeres tucked away his second six minutes after halftime and converted a penalty to complete his treble and seal victory for Graham Potter’s team, with Matvii Ponomarenko grabbing a late consolation for Ukraine.
Sweden are to play Poland in Stockholm for one of four remaining European tickets to the World Cup.
Robert Lewandowski helped Poland come from behind to scrape past Albania 2-1 after Arber Hoxha gave the visitors the lead in Warsaw.
Lewandowski headed in from a corner to bring Poland level with his 89th goal for his country before Piotr Zielinski grabbed the winner.
Czech Republic goalkeeper Matej Kovar saved two penalties in a shoot-out to steer his team past the Republic of Ireland in Prague.
Ireland looked well placed for a first trip to the World Cup since 2002 as Troy Parrott’s penalty and an own-goal by Kovar put them 2-0 ahead.
Patrik Schick pulled a goal back from the penalty spot and Ladislav Krejci powered in a header on 86 minutes to level at 2-2 and send the semi-final to extra-time.
Finn Azaz and Alan Browne both missed in the shoot-out as the Czech Republic lined up a showdown at home to a rampant Denmark.
“Just pain. We all feel pain. When you go this far it’s a flip of a coin. Just pain we feel being that close,” Republic of Ireland head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson told RTE.
Denmark eased to a 4-0 victory over North Macedonia in Copenhagen with all the goals coming in the second half.
Mikkel Damsgaard broke the deadlock and Gustav Isaksen scored twice in as many minutes before Christian Norgaard added a fourth.
Kosovo are on the brink of a first appearance at any major tournament following a wild 4-3 win away to Slovakia.
Slovakia twice led in Bratislava through goals from Martin Valjent and Lukas Haraslin, but Kosovo fought back with efforts from Veldin Hodza and Fisnik Asllani.
Kosovo, who were only admitted to UEFA and FIFA competitions a decade ago, then went in front courtesy of Florent Muslija and got another goal from Kreshnik Hajrizi.
David Strelec’s stoppage-time strike was not enough to deny Kosovo, who are to host Turkey for the right to go to the World Cup.
Ferdi Kadioglu scored a second-half winner for Turkey in a 1-0 victory over Romania in their playoff semi-final in Istanbul.
Turkey, quarter-finalists at Euro 2024, are bidding to reach the showpiece tournament for the first time since finishing third in South Korea and Japan 24 years ago.
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