Gyokeres Hat-trick Lifts Sweden As Kosovo Keep Dream Alive

Graham Potter's Sweden are 1 triumph from qualifying for nan World Cup aft Viktor Gyokeres scored a hat-trick successful their 3-1 play-off semi-final triumph complete Ukraine.

The Arsenal guardant had not scored successful 2026 qualifying earlier Thursday's crippled successful Valencia, Spain.

But Gyokeres went location pinch nan lucifer shot aft scoring successful nan sixth and 51st minutes, earlier completing his treble pinch a 73rd-minute penalty.

Sweden will look Poland successful their play-off last connected Tuesday, 31 March, aft they besides came from down to flooded Albania 2-1, pinch seasoned guardant Robert Lewandowski, 37, among nan scorers.

Kosovo, who are 77th successful Fifa's world rankings, will make their debut astatine this summer's tourney if they hit Turkey successful Pristina connected Tuesday aft doubly coming from down to stun Slovakia 4-3.

Turkey hit Romania 1-0, pinch Brighton full-back Ferdi Kadioglu scoring nan only extremity of nan crippled successful Istanbul.

And Denmark won 4-0 against North Macedonia successful Copenhagen, pinch each 4 goals coming successful nan 2nd half and Brentford's Mikkel Damsgaard claiming nan opener and Arsenal midfielder Christian Norgaard nan fourth.

Elsewhere successful nan title to suffice for nan World Cup, Northern Ireland's World Cup dream ended pinch a 2-0 conclusion distant to Italy, while Wales were taken to extra-time by Bosnia-Herzegovina aft their necktie ended 1-1 aft 90 minutes.

The Republic of Ireland led nan Czech Republic 2-0 successful Prague earlier nan hosts fought backmost to draw level and return nan crippled into other time.

More to follow.