By Philip O’Connor
An error by France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris handed Sweden’s Ola Toivonen a last-gasp goal to secure a 2-1 win in their World Cup Group A qualifier at the Friends Arena on Friday.
Lloris’s poor clearance fell straight to the midfielder who lobbed the keeper from inside his own half to steal the points and delight the home fans and their celebrating players.
France had led through a superb left-foot strike by forward Olivier Giroud after 37 minutes but that was cancelled out by a precise low finish from Sweden’s Jimmy Durmaz in the 43rd.
The win put Sweden top of the group, level on 13 points with France and three ahead of the Netherlands, who beat visiting Luxembourg 5-0 on Friday.
The Swedes, who had lost 2-1 when the sides met in Paris in November, spent the opening half-hour frustrating the visitors, getting stuck in to challenges and slowing the tempo, but that all changed when Giroud scored and the game burst into life.
France forward Antoine Griezmann twice headed straight at Robin Olsen in the second half but went closer with a free kick from distance that the goalkeeper scrambled to parry as the beaten Euro 2016 finalists upped the tempo.
Minutes later Lloris was tipping a free kick from Emil Forsberg over the bar and Sweeden’s Jakob Johansson also had a thumping shot from distance that flew just wide of the target.
France brought on teenage striker Kylian Mbappe late on but it was Swedish substitute Sebastian Larsson who pressured Lloris into making the bad clearance that gave Toivonen the chance to win the game for the home side, and he took it gleefully.
Summaries from the World Cup Qualifying European matches on Friday
Netherlands 5 Arjen Robben 21, Wesley Sneijder 34, Georginio Wijnaldum 62, Quincy Promes 70, Vincent Janssen 84pen
Luxembourg 0
Halftime: 2-0;Attendance: 41,300
– – –
Sweden 2 Jimmy Durmaz 43, Ola Toivonen 90+3
France 1 Olivier Giroud 37
Halftime: 1-1;
– – –
Belarus 2 Mikhail Sivakov 33pen, Pavel Savitski 80
Bulgaria 1 Georgi Kostadinov 90+1
Halftime: 1-0;Attendance: 6,500
– – –
Faroe Islands 0
Switzerland 2 Granit Xhaka 36, Xherdan Shaqiri 59
Halftime: 0-1;Attendance: 4,594
– – –
Latvia 0
Portugal 3 Cristiano Ronaldo 41,63, Andre Silva 67
Halftime: 0-1;Attendance: 8,087
– – –
Andorra 1 Marc Rebes 26
Hungary 0
Halftime: 1-0;Attendance: 2,400
– – –
Bosnia 0
Greece 0
Halftime: 0-0;Attendance: 11,000
– – –
Estonia 0
Belgium 2 Dries Mertens 31, Nacer Chadli 86
Halftime: 0-1;
– – –
Gibraltar 1 Anthony Hernandez 30
Cyprus 2 Roy Chipolina 10og, Pieros Sotiriou 87
Halftime: 1-1;Attendance: 488
– – –
Next Fixtures (GMT):
Saturday, June 10
Azerbaijan v Northern Ireland (1600)
Germany v San Marino (1845)
Norway v Czech Republic (1845)
Kazakhstan v Denmark (1600)
Montenegro v Armenia (1845)
Poland v Romania (1845)
Scotland v England (1600)
Slovenia v Malta (1600)
Lithuania v Slovakia (1845)
Sunday, June 11
Moldova v Georgia (1600)
Ireland v Austria (1600)
Serbia v Wales (1845)
Macedonia v Spain (1845)
Israel v Albania (1845)
Italy v Liechtenstein (1845)
Finland v Ukraine (1600)
Iceland v Croatia (1845)
Kosovo v Turkey (1845)
