Both sides wore black armbands, and a moment’s silence was held in memory of the 129 people who died in Friday’s Paris attacks.
Advertisement
Jimmy Durmaz combined nicely with Mikael Lustig down the right for Sweden, and the full-back’s low cross was met expertly by midfielder Emil Forsberg for his first worldwide goal.
Ibrahimovic again caused trouble at the Denmark end, with his cross to a fairly empty box causing confusion between Agger and Schmeichel, leading to the captain knocking the ball just over the bar for a corner.
Denmark’s Thomas Kahlenberg, left, and Sweden’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic…
Ibrahimovic, who has 19 career goals in Euro qualifiers, added a second on a free kick in the 77th.
Ibrahimovic doubled the advantage from the penalty spot five minutes into the second period after Forsberg was felled in the area.
The hosts, who had eliminated Sweden from the 2010 World Cup play-offs six years ago, didn’t give up and pulled back late goals from Yussuf Poulsen and Jannik Vestergaard, but they nonetheless came up well short.
Earlier Ukraine took a comfortable 2-0 lead over Slovenia in Lviv as Andrei Yarmolenko and Yevhen Seleznyov scored in either half of a bad tempered clash at the packed 65,000-seat Lviv Arena.
“During my time as national coach, we have qualified for major tournaments at home three times”.
It leaves the return leg in Copenhagen tomorrow evening delicately poised. With Denmark coach Morten Olsen making four changes from the team that started Saturday’s 2-1 defeat in Stockholm, the Danes looked much more muscular in midfield, but the final ball was often poor.
Advertisement
Sweden and Ukraine have become the final two teams to qualify for next year’s European Championships.
