{"id":49738,"date":"2026-03-27T07:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T07:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/49738\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T07:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T07:00:12","slug":"italy-sweden-and-denmark-close-in-on-world-cup-spots-dubai-eye-103-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/49738\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy, Sweden and Denmark close in on World Cup spots – Dubai Eye 103.8"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/
\n STEFANO RELLANDINI \/ AFP<\/p>\n

\n Italy moved within one win of ending their 12-year World Cup absence with a 2-0 qualification playoff semi-final victory over Northern Ireland on Thursday thanks to second-half goals from Sandro Tonali and Moise Kean.\n <\/p>\n

The breakthrough arrived in the 56th minute when Tonali pounced on a cleared cross, letting the ball bounce once before firing into the bottom corner from the edge of the area.<\/p>\n

Kean effectively ended the contest in the 80th minute, latching onto a Tonali pass and ghosting past his marker before dispatching a low strike into the net.<\/p>\n

The four-time world champions will on Tuesday face Bosnia and Herzegovina for a place at the tournament in the US, Canada and Mexico in June-July.<\/p>\n

Bosnia-Herzegovina’s veteran striker Edin Dzeko scored a late equaliser before his side beat Wales 4-2 on penalties to reach the playoff final after a 1-1 draw.<\/p>\n

Wales winger Daniel James opened the scoring for the hosts in the 51st minute after racing on to a loose ball and powering a thunderous 25-metre shot past Bosnia keeper Nikola Vasilj.<\/p>\n

Bosnia came alive after that though and home keeper Karl Darlow made an incredible save to keep out a close-range header by Ermedin Demirovic but could do nothing as the 40-year-old Dzeko glanced in an 86th-minute equaliser.<\/p>\n

Wales dominated extra time but could not find a winner and in the end it was Bosnia’s teenager Kerim Alajbegovic who held his nerve to seal the shoot-out.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere,\u00a0Sweden striker Viktor Gyokeres scored a superb hat-trick to help his side sweep aside Ukraine and set up a winner-takes-all playoff game against Poland in Stockholm on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Poland came from behind to beat Albania 2-1 and reach the playoff finals, with Robert Lewandowski and Piotr Zielinski netting second-half goals.<\/p>\n

In other games,\u00a0Kosovo twice came from behind to beat Slovakia 4-3 away and ensure a decisive home clash against Turkey on Tuesday for a World Cup place, while\u00a0Gustav Isaksen scored twice in two minutes as Denmark powered to a 4-0 win over North Macedonia in Copenhagen.<\/p>\n

In the playoff final, Denmark will face the Czech Republic, who edged past Ireland on penalties in a thrilling encounter that finished 2-2 after extra time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STEFANO RELLANDINI \/ AFP Italy moved within one win of ending their 12-year World Cup absence with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[27821,27822,438,27,26,637,12267,27823,38,6127,2807,6498,6991],"class_list":["post-49738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denmark","tag-103-8","tag-27822","tag-business","tag-danmark","tag-denmark","tag-dubai","tag-eye","tag-fm","tag-news","tag-radio","tag-sport","tag-station","tag-talk"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116299853007432695","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}