Poulsen secures Denmark's passage

Jakob Poulsen picked the perfect moment to score his first international goal as his long-range strike with eleven minutes remaining gave Denmark the win against Sweden they needed to qualify for next summer's FIFA World Cup finals in South Africa.

Point away
The visitors trailed their neighbours by three points in Group 1 at kick-off and although Sweden pushed hard to wipe out that gap, Denmark held out and Poulsen sent the sell-out Parken Stadium into raptures. Lars Lagerbäck's side will hope a win against Albania on Wednesday will be enough to take them into the play-offs.

High tempo
The match began at a high tempo. A well-worked home free-kick move allowed Nicklas Bendtner to try his luck with an acrobatic volley but Andreas Isaksson saved comfortably. The Sweden keeper then did even better to stop Poulsen's header from Jon Dahl Tomasson's cross in the box.

Under pressure
Despite those stops, Sweden were having slightly the better of the chances and Denmark goalkeeper Thomas Sørensen needed to perform well to deny Henrik Larsson, before Daniel Agger and Sørensen combined to scramble clear as Kim Källström pounced on Zlatan Ibrahimović's deep ball. The response from the hosts came in the form of a Michael Jakobsen effort from distance which Isaksson tipped over.

Sweden denied
Sweden took the initiative after the break and within a minute Simon Kjær intercepted a low centre from Ibrahimović, who soon afterwards headed wide in a goalmouth scramble. Denmark's defending was staunch, though, and Bendtner made Isaksson work after twisting into the box, before the Arsenal FC forward slipped through to Dennis Rommedahl, whose shot went wide. Still Sweden attacked, and had two goals disallowed in the space of three minutes, but when Poulsen received the ball from Bendtner and unleashed a superb shot, it was Denmark celebrating their first qualification for a major finals since UEFA EURO 2004™.