Sweden 2 Poland 0, October 9th 1999

Sweden helped England into the Euro 2000 play-offs with this win in Stockholm.

An excellent second half saw Bologna striker Kennet Andersson earn the thanks of every Englishman with a fine 62nd minute goal that ended Poland's chances of making the November play-offs for a place in their first major finals at the last six attempts.

Andersson had not scored for the national side since June last year in a friendly only days before the last World Cup against Italy but he chose this game to end that run and break Polish resistance.

The dull first half saw only a half chance for Henrik Larsson in the 43rd minute but he directed his header low at goalkeeper Adam Matysek.

The Poles started well in the second half and were close to taking the lead in the 47th minute. The normally reliable Swedish offside plan broke down to leave Tomasz Hajto with only goalkeeper Magnus Hedmann to beat. Bringing the ball down and shotting past the exposed goalkeeper would have sunk England;s hopes of a play-off and belied the excellent effort put into the game by a Swedish side who confirmed their place in the finals last month. Instead he chose the wrong option and headed the ball weakly to safety.

Andersson then struck with his 31st goal in 71 starts for the Swedish national team after a good run from Fredrik Ljungberg who rode two challenges to turn the ball into the penalty area for the tall striker to collect and fire underneath the legs of Matysek and into the net.

The striker - who spent three months at the start of the season with SS Lazio - should have claimed a second goal to put the result beyond doubt but he headed the ball over from eight feet out when he had time and space the find the killer goal in the 76th minute.

Radowslav Michalski saw the best Polish chance deflected wide after his low drive from the edge of the penalty area from a corner could not get to the net with Hedmann beaten.

The last thirty second of injury time at the end of the game were marked by a close range finish from Henrik Larsson after a low cross to end an excellent display by the Swedish team that celebrated a comfortable Euro 2000 campaign for Tommy Soderberg's team and helped the English cling on in the competition with a play-off place thanks to their 3-1 win over Poland at Wembley.