Sweden secured automatic qualification for the Euro 2012 finals with a nervy 3-2 win over Holland here on Tuesday.
With the Dutch already assured of top spot in Group E the pressure was on Sweden to stop the Oranje's unbeaten romp to next year's championship in Ukraine and Poland to emerge as the best of all the other second-placed teams and so avoid the play-offs.
Kim Kallstrom, Lyon's left-footed midfielder, put the Scandinavians into a 14th minute lead, defeating Dutch keeper Michel Vorm from a direct free kick awarded after defender Gregory van der Wiel fouled Johan Elmander.
Sweden's keeper Andreas Isaksson kept the hosts' on a level footing when denying Robin van Persie as half time approached.
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar - who had scored the only goal of the game in Friday's win over Moldova - put the 1988 European champions back level in the 23rd minute.
that was the Schalke forward's 12th goal of the qualifying campaign.
Liverpool's Dirk Kuyt put the Netherlands into a 50th minute lead, only for the Swedes to hit back immediately with two goals in the space of a minute.
First Sebastian Larsson scored from the spot after a penalty awarded following a handball by Joris Mathijsen, then seconds later Ola Toivonen put them back in front.
That frenetic passage of play set up an anxious nervy last half an hour for the Swedes with automatic qualification as the best runners-up dangling in front of them.
They held their nerve, despite suffering form the absence of striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, to lift them up to 19 points, with Holland, falling to their first defeat since their World Cup final loss to Spain in South Africa last year, on 24.
Source: AFP
